Halloween of Horrors ReUpload!
by LuckyLadybug
Summary: PLEASE REVIEW! CONCLUDED WITH CHAPTERS 19 AND 20! The YGO gang scarcely has a chance to relax when they're plunged into a new mystery with old acquaintances. And what's this about werewolves! Kind reviews welcome!
1. Return to KETY

Yu-Gi-Oh!  
  
Halloween of Horrors  
  
By Lucky_Ladybug  
  
  
  
  
  
Notes: MUWAHAHAHAHA!! Y'all didn't really think the series was ending, didja? ^^ **cracks knuckles.** They've solved mysteries in Domino before, so now they shall do it again! XD The characters aren't mine, the story is, and this shall be chock-full of sibling and friendship cuteness!! ^___^ Enjoy!!  
  
  
  
  
  
Yugi glanced out the window as several autumn leaves danced past. Everyone had been home from their long and exciting trip that had all started with a cruise for several days now, and somehow he had the feeling that they weren't going to have much more time to relax.  
  
Yami Yugi came out of the Puzzle and walked over to the window as well. "What are you thinking, Yugi?" he asked.  
  
Yugi started in surprise and then looked up at the Pharaoh with a smile. "Oh . . . I was thinking how good it is to be back home," he replied. "But still . . . I can't shake the feeling that something else might be going to happen. . . ."  
  
Yami Yugi sighed. "I have felt it as well," he admitted. "The evil forces have been quelled temporarily, so I do not think we have to worry about anything more to that effect for a while, anyway. But there are other dangers in the world to be concerned about."  
  
Yugi leaned against the window with a wry smile. "I guess I should've realized that any danger would find us," he laughed.  
  
****  
  
Yami Bakura was spread out in the window seat of Bakura's living room, fast asleep. Purring happily, Oreo curled up by his chest and whipped her long tail across it. The thief grunted, seeming to sense this even in his oblivious state.  
  
Bakura chuckled as he walked by and saw them. He knew his Yami truly loved the feisty feline, no matter how often he denied it.  
  
A strange howl met the boy's ears and he looked up in surprise. "Oh my. What was that?!" he wondered, carefully leaning over his Yami to look out the window. Nothing was visible, but the eerie cry soon met Bakura's ears once again. Shivers ran up his spine as he listened. "It sounds like a mournful wolf," he remarked.  
  
Yami Bakura stirred, disturbed out of his sleep by the noise. "'Mournful wolf'?" he repeated, opening one eye. "I don't think so, foolish boy."  
  
Bakura gulped. "Then what was it, Yami?" he wanted to know.  
  
Yami Bakura listened again, his expression darkening. "If you want my honest opinion, it sounds like a werewolf," he grunted.  
  
Oreo flattened her ears and hissed at whatever was outside.  
  
"Yami, you can't be serious!" Bakura yelped.  
  
"Have you ever known me to make jokes before?" Yami Bakura grunted. "That is the call of a werewolf."  
  
"But Yami!!" the poor boy wailed. "Werewolves in Domino City?!"  
  
"Well, that's where we live, isn't it?" was the irritated reply.  
  
****  
  
Rishid looked out the window at the Ishtar home and then quickly pulled the curtains closed again. "Something is walking across the property," he declared.  
  
"Yes, I know," Ishizu said softly, touching her Millennium Tauk.  
  
Marik blinked at her. "Well, what in the name of Heaven is it, sister?!" he exclaimed.  
  
"It is veiled in shadow," Ishizu answered. "We will only be seeing it at nighttime."  
  
Rishid opened the curtains again and then narrowed his eyes. "It's sitting under the window looking at me!" he cried. "I see two yellow orbs gleaming in the darkness!"  
  
Quickly the other two Ishtar siblings came over as well.  
  
"It must be an animal of some kind," Marik muttered.  
  
"Yes, but what kind?!" Rishid continued to stare at it, seeming almost transfixed.  
  
Ishizu touched his arm. "Do not continue looking into its eyes," she cautioned. "It is trying to hypnotize you."  
  
Shocked, Rishid immediately looked away from it. The creature let out a loud, warning growl and darted off into the bushes.  
  
"It's not going to take up residence here, is it?!" Marik burst out in annoyance.  
  
"I hope not," Ishizu sighed.  
  
"That's all we need," Marik muttered.  
  
****  
  
Joey was enjoying just relaxing for once.  
  
"Man, this is the life!" he said to Tristan. "No one getting shot or stabbed or being sacrificed for some creepy purpose!" The Brooklyn boy smiled blissfully, taking a sip of the root beer. "Just a couple of buddies, some sodas, a PlayStation . . ."  
  
"A pretty girl," Tristan murmured, eyeing Serenity with delight.  
  
She seemed not to notice. "It's great to be home," she smiled, speaking to Joey. "That experience in Boston was so . . . so . . ." The girl shuddered. "Are all your mysteries really like that, Joey?!"  
  
Joey knew instantly what she meant. "'Fraid so, sis," he said apologetically. "But that Boston one has been the first that involved any kind of weird sacrificing. Each one's different." His thoughts drifted back over the past ten mysteries they'd become entangled in.  
  
"I just don't see how you stand it," Serenity said softly. "If things were happening to you like what was happening to Marik and Mr. Kaiba, I know that . . . that . . ." She shook her head. "I know that I would've had a nervous breakdown long ago," came the whispered conclusion.  
  
Joey looked down, not sure how to answer that. "Hey, it's alright, Serenity," he said finally, trying to smile.  
  
"Yeah," Tristan chirped, anxious to make the girl feel better. "Bad stuff hardly ever happens to Joey."  
  
Joey kept silent, preferring not to let Serenity know about the time he'd been controlled by a zombie or the time he'd been sealed in a wall. Bad things may not happen to me a lot, he reflected, but when something does happen, it's always a doozy!  
  
****  
  
Téa choked back a yawn as she struggled through her homework assignments. Idly she turned the radio on and happened to find Joltin' JP's show.  
  
"You're listening to K-80's, Domino City's favorite radio station for all those great songs of the eighties!" JP's voice said brightly. "Now that my shift's been changed, I'll be keeping all you nightowls company! We'll get this hour started off with something for Halloween." With that he clicked a button and allowed a spooky laugh to play over the airwaves.  
  
Téa sighed and laid her pencil down. She'd never be able to concentrate during JP's antics. And she was certain that something bad was liable to happen any day now. It always seemed to. Things had been quiet for two weeks now, and with their luck lately, that was much too long for comfort. Something big had to be brewing.  
  
She was right.  
  
The phone rang sharply, startling her so much that she nearly fell on the floor. "Who would be calling this late?" she wondered, reaching for the receiver.  
  
"Hello!" came a perky voice that she had just heard recently. "Miss Téa Gardner?"  
  
Téa blinked. "Um, yeah, this is she," she replied.  
  
"Well, honey, this is JP Palmer. From K-80's?"  
  
The girl's jaw nearly hit the floor. Is this some kind of joke?! she wondered.  
  
"I know this must be a shock," JP went on then, "but I haven't forgotten how you and your friends all helped me that while back. It just so happens that I've got another weird mystery and I wondered if you would be interested in checking it out?"  
  
I knew it! Téa said to herself. Aloud she said, "Well, I'm sure we'd all be happy to come, Mr. Palmer. I could call the others and . . ."  
  
"I'm actually calling each one of you individually," JP admitted. "So far all I have are 'Yes's!" he said triumphantly. "Even Mr. Kaiba is going to come! Well, I know that's probably because he owns the station, but still . . ."  
  
"How soon do you want us there?" Téa asked now.  
  
"As soon as possible?" JP said hesitantly.  
  
Téa agreed and they hung up. Wow, she thought. A new mystery is falling into our laps, but I never dreamed that JP Palmer would be the one to bring it to us! I wonder what's going on. . . .  
  
Quickly she went downstairs and told her parents where she was going before dashing out the door and up the street.  
  
****  
  
Before long everyone had met up outside the KETY building.  
  
"This is way weird," Téa remarked to them after greetings were exchanged. "What could be such a big mystery that we'd be called in instead of the police?!"  
  
"Well, I guess we'll find out," Yugi grinned, shrugging and opening the door.  
  
Instantly they were accosted by Bruce von Wilkenson, the station manager.  
  
"Bakura!" he cried, his eyes lighting up as he spotted the silvery-haired boy. "Have you reconsidered my offer to be a deejay at the wonderful world of KETY?"  
  
Bakura turned pink, remembering the horrible experiences he'd had in the past when he'd unwillingly had to do two shows for Bruce. "Oh, I'm afraid not," he said slowly, scratching his cheek.  
  
Oreo peeked up out of Yami Bakura's shirt and meowed lazily.  
  
"A cat!" Bruce said in delight. "He'd be the perfect guest host for the mystery hour!"  
  
Oreo flicked her ear and gave a disapproving sound.  
  
"'She,'" Bakura corrected hurriedly, just wanting to get past him and into the studio.  
  
"What's this mystery hour?" Yugi asked, intrigued.  
  
"Something new we're doing just for October," Bruce said enthusiastically, petting Oreo's head. "We do something different and strange each night."  
  
"JP Palmer has invited us all here to discuss something," Marik said, stepping forward and feeling impatient to get on with things.  
  
"Oh . . . yes," Bruce said thoughtfully, seeming to know about that.  
  
"Do you know what he wants?" Joey asked hopefully.  
  
Bruce shrugged. "I'll let him tell you," he said. "I've gotta convince Bakura to do the mystery hour show tonight!"  
  
Bakura tried to inch closer to the door. "Oh, I'm certain you could find someone better than me," he said with a weak smile.  
  
"He'd be happy to do it," Yami Bakura sneered.  
  
"YAMI!!!" Bakura wailed.  
  
Abruptly a siren went off inside the station and Bruce went pale.  
  
"What does that mean?!" Yugi gasped.  
  
"It means trouble!" Bruce yelled, dashing inside.  
  
"Oh my," Bakura said with a blink. "I do hope no one's hurt. . . ."  
  
"I do as well," Seto grunted as he walked up to the others. "I have enough problems without dealing with a lawsuit." With that he pushed past them and walked inside.  
  
"Well, what do you say?" Yugi said, shoving the door open. "Let's go see what's wrong!"  
  
Before long all the teens were inside the familiar studio and looking about.  
  
"I smell smoke!" Téa cried.  
  
"That's because there's a fire in one of the rooms!" Bruce yelled in horror as he ran down the hall. "Someone put a match to a box of something!"  
  
"Do you think that's the mystery?!" Joey wondered with a blink. "Sabotage?"  
  
"I don't know," Marik said, shaking his head.  
  
Abruptly an angry-looking man shot past them all, pushing Mokuba, Marik, and Bakura all to the floor and towering over them.  
  
"Don't move, any of you," he growled. "The jig is up!" With that he started to reach into his vest pocket.  
  
"He's drawing a gun!!" Joey yelled. 


	2. Werewolves!

Instantly Tristan rushed forward in an attempt to tackle their assailant before anyone got shot. "Alright, buster, you've got a lot of nerve!" the hazel-eyed boy declared. "No one pulls a gun on my friends while I'm around!"  
  
The man only grunted. "A gun?" he repeated, reaching out to restrain Tristan from grabbing him. "Kid, you've got an active imagination."  
  
"Well, if it's not a gun, then what is it?!" Mokuba demanded angrily, picking himself up.  
  
"Just this." Now the man removed a piece of paper and spread it out, revealing a newspaper clipping of Lila Palmer being arrested.  
  
Marik slowly got up as well, rubbing his backside in annoyance. "I don't understand what your problem is," he said. "Lila was a conniving criminal who got exactly what she deserved."  
  
"Lila was no crook," the man growled. "A little selfish, maybe, and irresponsible, but not the cold-blooded criminal you people made her out to be!"  
  
"I don't think so!" Yugi cried, becoming upset. "She kidnapped her own brother to further her plans! I don't call that irresponsible—I call it cruel and heartless!!"  
  
"She sounds extremely selfish to me," Ishizu agreed quietly, "not to mention wicked and thoughtless." She silently fumed at this person's utter unmannerly actions at throwing her brother—and Mokuba and Bakura as well—to the floor.  
  
Rishid glared. "I will thank you to not carelessly throw people—especially my brother—to the floor again." He stepped forward threateningly.  
  
"I knew Lila better than anyone," the strange man growled, ignoring Rishid. "You've warped her entire reputation!"  
  
"What makes you think you know her so well?!" Joey growled.  
  
"I was her fiancé," was the reply.  
  
Before anyone could answer to this shocking statement, Mandy Granger ran past, her eyes wide with horror as she led the firefighters in.  
  
"I think it's been put out now," she babbled, "but oh! This is so scary! Why do all these things happen at this radio station?!"  
  
Téa couldn't say she was happy to see Mandy again. The red-haired girl was a complete scatter-brain and an immense fangirl of Seto Kaiba. She reminded Téa a lot of a girl Tristan had once been nuts about.  
  
"We'll have to discuss this later," Marik said, walking around the man and following after Mandy and the firefighters, wanting to know what had happened in the station. The others chased after him then, even Lila's irate former fiancé.  
  
When they reached the room, it was empty except for a smoldering box in the middle of the floor. The smoke was thick in the air and everyone began waving it away and coughing.  
  
"You people stay back," one fireman directed as he walked inside to make certain the fire was out.  
  
Mandy wrung her hands and then suddenly became aware of the audience gathered there. "Oh hi!" she chirped. "Where's Seto Kaiba today?"  
  
"He came in here," Mokuba replied guardedly. He wasn't sure who Mandy was, as he hadn't been involved with the part of the disappearing deejay mystery that had taken place right inside the radio station. As he looked around, the little boy began wondering himself where his older brother was and hoped that he hadn't gotten into trouble.  
  
At that moment Seto appeared with an upset Bruce in tow. "What exactly caused this?" Seto demanded. "It clearly looks deliberate."  
  
"Unfortunately, it probably was," Bruce said, his voice rising in anger. "Mandy found it and ran to tell me as I came through the doors. Someone must want this station to fail!!"  
  
"Sabotage again, hmm?" Seto half-turned, looking irritated.  
  
"Oh, Mr. Kaiba!" Mandy exclaimed in delight, immediately trying to attach herself to his arm.  
  
Instantly Seto distanced himself as far away as possible, waiting for Bruce's answer.  
  
"It had better not be!" the station manager cried indignantly.  
  
"Then what would you call it?" Seto asked calmly.  
  
Bruce looked flustered. "A disgrace!" he said at last. "A disgrace, that's what I'd call it!!"  
  
Seto shook his head and turned away.  
  
At that moment JP came out from the studio where he had been doing his show. "Great!" he exclaimed. "You're all here!" He sighed as he looked at the smoke wafting out into the hall, but he didn't seem too surprised.  
  
"Yeah, we're here, alright," Téa said slowly, "but why exactly are we?"  
  
JP sighed, apparently not wanting to speak in front of more people than he had to. Trying to make light of things and not look suspicious, he simply grinned and said, "Why, to tour my studio, of course!"  
  
Joey blinked. "That's why you invited us all down here?"  
  
Téa, sensing what JP was doing, quickly shushed the Brooklyn boy.  
  
"Come right this way," JP said grandly, leading them all down the corridor and back into the cosy, cushioned room he was broadcasting from.  
  
"Hey, this is nice," Joey said, sinking down into a soft chair.  
  
"I could definitely get used to this," Tristan agreed.  
  
"So what's with the new studio, JP?" Yugi asked, looking around in awe.  
  
JP shrugged. "Bruce said I'm his star deejay and that my studio should be a place of complete comfort." He laughed a bit embarrassedly. "You know how he is about his deejays."  
  
Bakura winced, remembering suddenly that his Yami had volunteered him for the mystery hour.  
  
"Are you alright, Bakura?" Mokuba asked. "You look green!"  
  
Bakura sighed, sinking deeper into the couch he was on. "I honestly feel ill," he replied, rubbing a hand over his forehead.  
  
"Hey, it'll be alright, buddy," Tristan said, knowing what the other boy was so upset about.  
  
Bakura gave him a weak smile.  
  
"Well, anyway . . ." JP glanced around furtively before pressing a switch that locked the door. "I really did call you guys here about something important. I just didn't want Bruce to hear us talking."  
  
"Why not?" Téa asked. Though she was quite sure she knew that was why JP had acted as he had a few minutes before, she didn't understand the reason.  
  
"Frankly, the truth is . . ." JP narrowed his eyes. "I think Bruce may be doing things because he wants to get his station back in the public limelight."  
  
"It wouldn't surprise me," Marik grunted. "From what I've seen of him, he seems the type. But . . ." The Egyptian boy crossed his arms and his arm bands clanked into each other. "I don't know why he'd want to get bad publicity. That is, after all, what this nonsense will certainly bring about."  
  
"Perhaps he wishes to make himself a hero," Ishizu suggested. "He, or someone else in the studio that he has enlisted to do so, would create the accidents and then Bruce would pretend to find a way to solve things."  
  
JP nodded. "It's possible," he agreed.  
  
"Do you have any proof of your concerns?" Seto wanted to know.  
  
"Unfortunately, nothing that would hold up in a court," JP admitted ruefully. "But I did see Bruce going into a room shortly before this fire started, carrying a pack of matches. He seemed to be muttering something like, 'I'll show them! I'll show them all!'" He sighed. "And he's said some other strange things lately, like how he's frustrated at the way the press portrays him. I really think this lovely young woman . . . what is your name?" he asked, interrupting himself to blink at Ishizu, whom he had never met.  
  
"Ishizu Ishtar," she replied softly.  
  
"Oh of course . . . Marik's sister," JP nodded. "Well, anyway, I think Ms. Ishtar may be on to something with her suggestion."  
  
"But how can we prove any of this?" Yugi wondered. "If it's true, that is."  
  
JP laced his fingers together. "Well, it would really help if one of you was working here," he said. "You could try to get close to Bruce and find out what's going on. If he decided he trusted you enough, he might let you in on the secret."  
  
Bakura bit back a sigh. He would be the one who wound up working here, he was certain. The shy, quiet British boy really didn't care for the spotlight at all and would be perfectly content to simply stay in the shadows.  
  
Seto grunted. "I already own this station," he said. "I could easily have some of my men come here and work undercover."  
  
"Not a bad idea," JP agreed. "But I think one of you would be the best choice. Bruce already knows all of you and thinks you're great."  
  
"What if he isn't doing anything and we're suspecting an innocent man?" Yugi worried. He hadn't voiced his opinion yet, but he honestly felt that Bruce wasn't the culprit.  
  
"Well, if he isn't, then there's no need to worry," JP smiled. "But you can understand why I called all of you and not the police."  
  
Téa nodded. "Of course."  
  
The disc jockey stood up and walked to the window. "Even if Bruce is innocent, which he very well may be, there is someone running loose here who needs to be caught," he said. "I'll be investigating all that I can, but it may not be enough."  
  
"We'll be happy to help," Yugi said.  
  
"Super Joey is on the case!" Joey grinned.  
  
JP grinned as well. "I knew I could count on all of you," he said.  
  
Bakura sat up straight. "Well, my Yami's already decided that I'm going to do the mystery hour show," he said, trying to smile.  
  
"Really?" JP looked at the clock. "Then you'd better hurry along. It starts in thirty minutes!" He pressed another button and the door unlocked.  
  
Bakura gulped, walking to it with his Yami quickly following.  
  
"It's not as bad as all that, pal," Tristan said. "All you havta do is talk into the microphone to several thousand people and play a few songs."  
  
"Oh, thanks for the encouragement, mate," Bakura remarked, showing his rare cynical side as he walked out into the hall.  
  
"Good luck, Bakura!" Yugi called.  
  
Marik looked at JP again. "There's more, isn't there?" he said calmly.  
  
"What?" JP said innocently.  
  
"There's something else you're not telling," Marik replied, giving him a searching look. "This isn't just about whoever may be out to cause these accidents, is it?"  
  
JP began to pace the room. "Well . . . you know that fiancé of my dear sister's?" He spoke with an air of cynicism and disgust himself.  
  
"Oh yeah. Real nice guy there," Joey remarked. "And strong! Heck, he pushed three of our friends down with one hand!"  
  
JP stopped pacing, looking disturbed. "Something's strange about him," he declared.  
  
"Well, go ahead and tell us," Téa said. "Is he another suspect?"  
  
"He could be," JP said vaguely, seeming reluctant to tell exactly what was on his mind.  
  
"Hey, come on, spill!" Joey said impatiently. "What's up with the dude?! Who is he?!"  
  
JP sat down on the edge of his desk. "His name is Phil Court," he replied, "and he's actually working here." He made another face. "Bruce knows about the whole 'him-being-engaged-to-Lila' thing, but he doesn't care. He's sure that Phil is trustworthy and won't do something stupid."  
  
"But what do you think?" Seto asked, irritated because it seemed that this mystery was only getting deeper and more confusing.  
  
"I think . . ." JP stopped, shaking his head. "No, it's ridiculous."  
  
"What is?" Yugi wanted to know.  
  
"Those creatures don't exist!" JP said in frustration.  
  
"Would you care to enlighten us on your ramblings?" Marik said.  
  
"Werewolves," JP muttered. "Werewolves don't exist."  
  
Seto snorted. "You're right, they don't." He stood up. "I didn't come here to listen to fairy tale nonsense. I have better things to do with my time."  
  
Ishizu seemed to be paying intense attention to JP, however. "Do you think that this Phil is a werewolf?" she asked.  
  
JP sighed. "Well . . . the thing is, he's been working here for a while, and everytime it's around the full moon, he always asks for a few days off. One time, when he wasn't able to get it, he went a bit ballistic. Then I heard this weird sound down in the basement that night . . ." He trailed off.  
  
"Go on," Ishizu encouraged.  
  
Marik blinked at her, wondering if she was actually believing this strange tale. Of course, he said to himself, we've seen so many odd things. What's a werewolf or two? He also remembered the creature from earlier that had prowled around their house and wondered if possibly it could have been something of the kind. It seemed that Ishizu might be thinking so.  
  
JP broke into his thoughts as he picked up his story again. "I heard this weird moaning, scratching sound," he said, "so I went down to investigate. I knew Phil had been the last one down there. He's the producer for the morning show, the one Mandy does now. So anyway, I called and asked if he was okay. I saw what looked like his silhouette on the opposite wall, struggling in agony, and then suddenly I didn't see it anymore." He paused for emphasis. "And then a horrible fanged beast leaped out at me!" 


	3. Abducted on a Aircraft

Everyone gazed at JP in apparent disbelief.  
  
"Fanged beast?" Yugi repeated.  
  
"It was probably a large dog," Seto grumbled.  
  
JP sighed. "Admittedly, I have no way of knowing what it was. But all the evidence points to a werewolf. After it jumped at me, I ducked and tried to throw something at it, but nothing could seem to make it stop. I didn't know what I was going to do . . . but then I heard a weird noise, like a motor, and the creature turned tailed and ran into the shadows. A moment later Phil appeared."  
  
Joey's eyes were wide in astonishment. "And he claimed he hadn't seen any weird dog?"  
  
"That's right," JP nodded.  
  
Rishid narrowed his eyes. "It's all circumstantial. I personally do not believe in werewolves."  
  
JP grinned sheepishly. "Me either, but it does seem kinda suspicious after all this."  
  
Seto didn't look impressed. "This is wasting my time. I don't have to listen to this nonsense." He rose, preparing to leave. "Let's go, Mokuba."  
  
"Wait, Seto!" Mokuba protested. "What if there is some dog loose here? Wouldn't someone need to be told?"  
  
"I did tell animal control," JP said slowly, "but they never found anything."  
  
Marik leaned forward with a sigh. He wasn't thrilled with the way the new mystery was going. The last thing he wanted was to deal with werewolves—something he didn't believe existed.  
  
"So while Bakura works undercover, what do you want the rest of us to do?" Tristan asked.  
  
"Just . . . act like you're having a great time," JP smiled. "Be inconspicuous! Wander around the station and say that I gave you the green light."  
  
"Okay," Yugi said hesitantly. "But how long have weird things been going on here?"  
  
"It just started recently," JP replied. "Curiously, it began shortly after Phil came."  
  
****  
  
Yami Bakura was champing at the bit to get on the air. Bakura could tell that when they did, the thief would try to make some sort of announcement, and the boy wasn't anxious for a war of the microphone.  
  
Oreo pawed at the microphone now, causing the device to make a sound of protest. The cat meowed in approval, rubbing up against it.  
  
"She was born for the mic!" Bruce grinned. "This is going to be the best Mystery Hour yet!"  
  
Bakura stood to the side reluctantly, wishing he wouldn't have to go through with this. But he'd already said he would, so there wasn't anything he could do but go.  
  
"You're on in five seconds!" Bruce yelled.  
  
Bakura gulped as he reached for the microphone. Before he could greet the listeners as the On the Air button flashed red, Oreo beat him to it.  
  
"MEOOOW!!" she cried loudly.  
  
Instantly the poor boy went as red as the button. "Oh, um, that was my cat," he said feebly, trying to laugh. "We seem to be doing the Mystery Hour tonight . . ."  
  
"That's right," Yami Bakura growled as he snatched the mic away. "And fear shall be struck into the heart of every mortal who is listening tonight! For strange creatures prowl the streets on this damp, cold October, waiting to attack and force you into their furry army!"  
  
Bakura's mouth dropped open. "Yami, what are you doing??!!" he practically screamed.  
  
"Just watch and see," the thief smirked.  
  
"I'm afraid to," Bakura moaned.  
  
****  
  
In the meantime, the others were roaming through the station, just as JP had directed.  
  
Marik had found himself down in the basement, all alone. He had been with Ishizu and Rishid, but somehow they had become separated during a bit of confusion between the firefighters and Phil Court.  
  
He peered around a corner, memories returning to him. He couldn't forget how Vivalene had once been working at KETY. That vile woman. . . .  
  
But that was all over now. He had to concentrate on the present situation.  
  
Slowly the boy clicked on the light, narrowing his eyes as he noticed blood splashed on the walls. Whose blood? How had it gotten there?  
  
He advanced carefully, inspecting the blood to see if it was fresh. To his concern, he found that it, indeed, was.  
  
"Someone was harmed here, very recently," the Egyptian boy muttered.  
  
The basement was littered with old cardboard and Styrofoam cartons that had once held equipment and CDs for the station. As Marik crept down through the mostly bare, mildew-filled rooms, he had the distinct feeling that something was following him. The strange dog, perhaps? He clutched the Rod tightly to him, ready to use it in an instant if it became necessary. Several times he turned around abruptly, trying to catch his assailant by surprise, but never was he able to catch sight of anyone. Though he wouldn't admit it, the boy was starting to feel quite uneasy.  
  
Finally he came to the very back of the basement and found a door with a staircase outside it, leading upward to the vacant field in back of the station. He was about to turn around and go back when he heard a vicious snarling behind him. It *was* the dog!  
  
Before Marik could do a thing about it, the creature was springing in the air to attack. He fell backwards as he tried to avoid it, falling against the door. The dog slammed into him in the next instant, sending him right through the glass and to the concrete on the other side.  
  
Furiously the boy stabbed at his assailant with the dagger in the Rod, hoping to slow it down. Desperately he prayed that at least it wouldn't go back in the station and terrorize his loved ones. Making up his mind, he went up the stairs carefully with his back to them, preparing to try using the Rod's powers on the creature once they were in the open field.  
  
He never did get that chance.  
  
A loud motor roared just behind him as he got to the top, and the dog suddenly barreled the poor boy over to rush to the private jet that was preparing to take off.  
  
"What the devil?!" Marik yelped, struggling up to stare at the airplane. Where had it come from? What was it doing behind the KETY studios? And why was the dog running toward it as though the world would end if it didn't?!  
  
"Lights out, bucko," a nasty voice hissed. In the next second, something hard struck Marik on the head and he blacked out.  
  
****  
  
A spooky, B-movie laugh echoed through the room as Yami Bakura continued to refuse to let Bakura have the microphone.  
  
"Domino City is full of curious creatures tonight," the thief said in the sort of dangerous, low tone that was infamous on old thriller radio shows. "They could be peering through your window right at this moment, but you'd never know it. And then in the next instant . . ." He made a sound that was a reference to death.  
  
"Yami, I'm sure everyone has heard quite enough of that!" Bakura exclaimed in horror, grabbing at the microphone. "Um, he's just joking," he tried to say for the audience's benefit. "For Halloween, you know?"  
  
"Who's joking?" Yami Bakura said calmly.  
  
"MEOOW!" Oreo yowled suddenly, taking the microphone between her paws and licking it.  
  
"CAT!!!!!!" Yami Bakura screamed. "That isn't FOOD!! What? Do you think it resembles a shish-kebab?!"  
  
"Meow," Oreo replied lazily.  
  
****  
  
"What's going on, Seto?" Mokuba asked as he followed his big brother down the hall.  
  
"I'm going to talk to Bruce myself about the fire and anything else that may have happened," Seto told him.  
  
"But what if he is guilty?" Mokuba asked.  
  
Seto grunted. "Then he'll just have to realize that I'll bring him down. I'm tired of nonsense going on at the places I own."  
  
The boy wasn't any more impressed when he walked past an open door and saw Joey pretending to be a deejay.  
  
"Yeah, you're tuned in to Jammin' Joey for another hour of rockin' and rollin' fun!" the Brooklyn boy chirped, chuckling as he adjusted the headset he was wearing.  
  
"Heh. I wonder if all of Domino City is fleeing in terror."  
  
Instantly Joey froze, knowing that Seto had heard him. An embarrassed grin spread across his face, though he made certain not to turn and let the CEO see. "Hey, I'd have plenty of listeners!" he said defensively. "Heck, I bet more people would wanna hear me crank out the tunes than listen to you make some speech about politics or a new economical system. BO-RING!"  
  
Seto snorted in response and turned away, only to be intercepted by Bruce.  
  
"What's going on here?!" the high-strung man demanded.  
  
"Eh, just havin' some fun," Joey replied, setting the headphones down and coming over.  
  
"Fun?! FUN??!!" Bruce wailed. "You interrupted Bakura with your drivel! You went on the air!!"  
  
"WHAT?!" Joey yelped.  
  
Seto snickered. "Not only that, Wheeler, but I believe you're still on the air."  
  
Joey whirled around to stare at the On the Air button. "Hey! That means you went on the air too!!" he cried.  
  
Seto shrugged. "I really don't care," he said, walking off. "And Bakura was probably happy to be interrupted."  
  
****  
  
Yugi walked into the room where the fire had been set, Téa and Tristan following him closely.  
  
"Here's the box," Yugi announced, looking in it.  
  
"Anything worth while in it?" Tristan asked.  
  
"Just ashes," Yugi sighed.  
  
Téa wandered over to the wall. "I wonder what kind of room this is supposed to be," she mused. "Why is it completely empty except for this box?"  
  
"Maybe it's going to be another studio," Yugi suggested. "Or a storage room."  
  
"Don't they have enough storage room in the basement?" Tristan said. "I mean, really, all that's down there is boxes and more boxes!"  
  
"You were in the basement, Tristan?" Yugi said in surprise.  
  
"No," Tristan said hurriedly. "I just glanced down from the top of the stairs."  
  
"Hey!" a familiar voice called out. "Is there a new mystery to solve?"  
  
Everyone turned to see Bernard and Elsa standing in the doorway, looking in with interest. The two pre-teens were constantly arguing and trying to crack cases in the midst of it. And there was always one suspect they came up with who was responsible for whatever went wrong.  
  
"What makes you say that?" Yugi said cautiously.  
  
"Oh come on!" Bernard said. "We know about the fire! And we know who did it!"  
  
Elsa nodded. "It was Bruce!"  
  
Téa sighed. "You always say Bruce did it!" she scolded.  
  
"Well . . . he did!" Elsa replied defensively.  
  
****  
  
Marik opened his eyes slowly, feeling the unsteady floor under him and the heavy sack of grain over his side, preventing him from getting up without a struggle. When his mind cleared a bit, he realized that he must be on the aircraft he'd seen back in the field. He hissed in anger, shoving at the sack until it was lifted and he was free to stand.  
  
"Awake, are you?" came a calm voice from the cockpit.  
  
Instantly Marik stormed up to the apparent pilot, fury in his eyes. "Why have you abducted me?!" he growled.  
  
The pilot looked unruffled. "I had my reasons," he said coolly.  
  
"I demand that you let me down this minute!" Marik fumed. "If you don't . . . I may force your hand."  
  
"With this?" The pilot held up the Millennium Rod. "'Fraid not."  
  
Marik snarled, knowing that he couldn't make a grab for it while they were up in the air. "At least enlighten me as to where we're going," he hissed.  
  
"You'll see soon enough." The pilot's expression changed suddenly, his eyes a picture of horror. "Oh no . . ."  
  
"What is it now?!" Marik snapped.  
  
"Someone's tampered with the engine. We're going down!" was the unnerving reply. "And I . . . I can't stop it!" The man tugged on the controls frantically without success.  
  
In the next instant, the plane slammed against a tree, dislocating one of the wings. Marik fell backward, feeling the darkness of oblivion blanketing him again. 


	4. Canyons

Notes: Thanx to Chaos for the Yami Bakura idea. LOL XD  
  
  
  
  
  
Ishizu, walking down a hall with Rishid, suddenly stopped and narrowed her eyes, touching the Millennium Tauk grimly. "Marik . . . you must get out, brother! You must!" she screamed, going pale.  
  
Rishid turned to look at her. He, also, had sensed trouble and was fearful for their brother's safety. "Where is he, Ishizu?" he pleaded to know. "Are you having a vision?!"  
  
Ishizu nodded apprehensively. "Marik is . . . he is laying unconscious on a piece of debris from a fallen aircraft!" She ran to the window and looked out.  
  
"Is he nearby?!" Rishid asked, panic growing.  
  
"I do not know," Ishizu replied, tears pricking her eyes. "The Tauk did not show that to me. Come. We must find out if any airplanes have crashed in the vicinity."  
  
Rishid didn't bother to wonder what Marik had been doing on an airplane. There would be time for that later. Right now they just had to find him . . . alive.  
  
"Also," Ishizu continued as they rounded a corner, "we must pray."  
  
"Yes," Rishid agreed solemnly, worry for his precious brother building, "we must."  
  
****  
  
While the older Ishtar siblings were looking for information on airplanes, Bakura was feeling about like sitting down and crying. Nothing was going right on this radio show he was trying so desperately to pull off. Oreo was begging for the pizza Yami Bakura had sent out for, the thief was doing a mystery quiz and threatening to steal people's souls if they gave the wrong answer, and the callers, undaunted, continued to call in.  
  
As Seto Kaiba had predicted, Bakura had been shocked, but happy, when Joey's fake broadcast had cut in on everything. Oh if only Bruce would let Joey do the show! the boy wailed to himself.  
  
In the background, Yami Bakura was laughing wickedly as he spoke with another caller. "No, you moron, silver Duracell batteries are not what defeats werewolves, and if you call up again with such unexcusable nonsense, your soul will be taken!" With that he hung up and grinned into the microphone. "Next?"  
  
Oreo yowled, forcing the pizza box open with her paw and stealing a slice. Bakura just gave her a bleak look as he slumped down into the chair.  
  
****  
  
Marik moaned softly, moving his hand across the flat surface as he again regained consciousness. It was a more painful awakening this time, as the boy soon discovered. "Where am I?" he managed to say aloud, rolling off what he then realized was a plane wing and falling into the grass. He let out a cry of surprise and pain and then stared up at the dark sky, his breathing labored.  
  
He remembered being in the plane . . . and he remembered it crashing into a tree, severing a wing. After that he remembered no more.  
  
Slowly the Egyptian boy struggled to get into a sitting position, wincing at the pain. He glanced around at the wreckage from the aircraft, chills going up his spine. "I shouldn't even be alive," he murmured, feeling a rush of dizziness and laying down again.  
  
Off in the distance he could see the pilot, the one who had kidnapped him—and the one who had his Millennium Rod. Through his clouded mind, Marik wondered if the man was still alive and if he would be able to get any information from him if he was. Gritting his teeth, the boy again forced himself to sit and then stand, limping over to where the pilot was sprawled on another piece of the plane, which had seemed to have broken in pieces. The Rod lay near him and Marik snatched it up as he stumbled over. After placing it in his belt, the Egyptian examined the man for any signs of life and found none. The pilot's neck was broken and he was obviously dead. Marik would learn nothing from him.  
  
Suddenly becoming frightfully aware of a sizzling sound, the boy only barely had enough time to leap out of the way as the plane's remnants caught fire and exploded. Marik was thrown back several feet, having had no chance to rescue his abductor's body before everything had ignited.  
  
Now the Egyptian lay on his side in the grass, staring dazedly at the flames. I have to get up again, he told himself. I have to get up . . . the grass will catch on fire . . . I will die if I don't move. . . .  
  
Becoming increasingly aware of his badly bruised leg, the pain aroused Marik to his full senses and he dove for cover as the fire began spreading over the dry, parched grass. If he only knew where he was . . .! Was he still near Domino City? Could he be in the canyons beyond the town? Or was he somewhere far away, in another state, even?  
  
He rubbed at his eyes and tried to recall any possible clues to his location. Surely if they'd been flying for a long time, the airplane's sabotage would have kicked in even sooner. But not necessarily. He had been unconscious when he was forced into the craft, so he truly had no way of knowing what had happened. Depending on what had been done to the plane, it might not have kicked in until after they would have been airborne for some time.  
  
But then again . . .  
  
Marik struggled to recall the pilot's own words about the disaster. "Someone's tampered with the engine!" he remembered the man yelling. Surely engine damage would have come to light almost immediately. He must be in the canyons near Domino City. That would only make sense.  
  
"What would also make sense is getting out of here alive," the boy muttered with sarcasm, trying to pick his way down a steep incline he found he was by. Due to the spreading flames, that was the only way he could travel.  
  
He coughed, the smoke starting to get to him. "Only a bit more now," he observed, dropping the rest of the way to the bottom and limping as he tried to continue his journey. Somehow he would get back to Ishizu and Rishid. Somehow he would!  
  
****  
  
Ishizu gazed at JP in worry. "You say there have been a couple of plane crashes reported in the past hour?" she exclaimed, trying to control her fear but being almost unable to.  
  
"That's right," JP said slowly. "One was into the Pacific Ocean and the other was in . . ." Quickly he checked the report that he'd just received. "The other was in the canyons," he finished.  
  
Rishid took the report and looked it over intently. "Could Marik have been in the one in the water?" he whispered.  
  
"In my vision . . . I could not tell," Ishizu replied quietly.  
  
"Hey guys . . . what's up?"  
  
They turned to see Yugi, Tristan, and Téa standing in the doorway, looking worried.  
  
"Marik . . . I have had a vision about him," Ishizu answered Yugi's question.  
  
"Where is he, anyway?" Tristan asked, blinking.  
  
Ishizu didn't reply to that.  
  
JP continued to look the report over. "There's a big fire in the canyons," he said slowly. "It started when . . . when the airplane exploded."  
  
Ishizu covered her mouth with her hand in pure horror. "No . . . Marik would have gotten out," she tried to reassure herself and Rishid. "If he was there, he would have gotten out . . ."  
  
"Gotten out?!" Téa burst out in shock. "He was in that?!"  
  
"But he was just here a while ago!" Tristan cried in disbelief. "How'd he get on an airplane?!"  
  
"Perhaps the airplane was here," Ishizu replied quietly, remembering hearing a strange sound a while back that had actually sounded like a very small plane's engine.  
  
Phil Court passed by them then, his eyes narrowed. "You kids are still here?" he growled, obviously ignoring Ishizu and Rishid, who were very much adults.  
  
"Hey, they have a perfect right to be," JP said with a frown. "I invited them."  
  
Phil's expression didn't lighten. "You're probably telling them more lies about Lila."  
  
"Maybe you can tell us where our buddy Marik is," Tristan snapped.  
  
"Marik?" Phil continued to glare. "I dunno you kids by name, and I'm perfectly content to keep it that way."  
  
Rishid looked at Ishizu, unsure of what they should do. Ishizu looked back, tears in her eyes. She didn't know any better than Rishid. At last she turned slightly, heading for the door. "We shall journey to the canyons," she declared. "Mr. Court will not tell us anything, so we might as well not waste our time with him. And now I feel that our brother may be in the canyons somewhere."  
  
****  
  
Seto had found his way to the basement by this time and was examining the same blood that Marik had found earlier. Only now there was more of it. Of course Seto didn't realize this, however.  
  
"That's disgusting!" Mokuba cried.  
  
Seto grunted. "I intend to find out why it's on KaibaCorp property," he muttered, suddenly noticing a large piece of fur.  
  
Mokuba noticed it too. "Seto! It looks like there really was a weird dog in here!"  
  
A growling sound met their ears and Seto didn't look at all pleased. "And it sounds as though it's still here," he said in irritation. "Mokuba, head for the stairs. Now."  
  
"What?!" Mokuba cried in disbelief. "I'm not leaving here unless you are, big brother!"  
  
"Go!!" Seto yelled as the dog charged. Frantically he tried to block Mokuba from the creature's teeth and claws. He winced as he felt the dog slash into his shoulder.  
  
"SETO!!!" Mokuba screamed in horror, throwing a big piece of Styrofoam at the rabid beast. "Stay away from my brother, you mangy mutt!!"  
  
The dog growled as the Styrofoam bounced off its head and then prepared to charge again. Before it could, it suddenly howled and fell to the floor, laying still.  
  
Seto relaxed, staring upward and seeing an animal control officer standing in the top of the stairs. "It seems you came just in time," the boy said, straightening up and ignoring the wounds in his shoulder.  
  
"We just got an anonymous call about this beast," the officer replied, walking over to them. "And you should have that shoulder looked at."  
  
"I'm fine," Seto said coldly. "I just want to know how this thing got in here. And why."  
  
"So would we," replied the officer.  
  
****  
  
Marik moaned, tripping over a rock in his path and falling for the umpteenth time. He was dizzy and tired and his leg pained him so badly. He doubted that he'd gone very far, even though it felt like several miles. Above him the fire raged while an ever-growing crew tried to put it out.  
  
"Ohh . . . I have to move again," Marik told himself, trying to get up. "Somehow . . ."  
  
His mind was still confused and muddled, but he still did wonder what had happened to him and why. What the point in abducting him that way? The pilot had seemed to know exactly what he was doing. Marik was fairly certain that it had nothing to do with "knowing too much," as he knew absolutely nothing at all about what was going on at the station. No, they had wanted him for some other reason.  
  
"I have to stand," Marik told himself again. "No matter how hurt I am . . . I have to stand up. . . ." Growling, he forced himself upright and leaned against a tree, shaking as he did so. "How did I even survive that crash?" he whispered. "How did I?"  
  
"Hey!"  
  
Marik looked up as Joey's unmistakable voice came through the trees.  
  
"There's Marik!!" Joey yelled.  
  
"Where?!" Téa demanded. "Is he alright?!"  
  
Marik placed a hand to his forehead. He was dizzy . . . oh so very dizzy. . . . Standing up, perhaps, hadn't been the best idea. The weakness, the pain, the darkness . . . it was all washing over him now, now that he knew someone had seen him and would come for him. Now he could just relax . . . just succumb to the emptiness. . . .  
  
"Man, I don't think so!" Joey exclaimed. "He looks like he's passing out!"  
  
****  
  
Quickly the others surrounded Marik's poor body, casting worried eyes upon the worn-out Egyptian teen sprawled on a bed of autumn leaves.  
  
"Marik!! Hey, Marik, can you hear us?!" Joey asked, kneeling down and shaking him gently. I wish Ishizu and Rishid would find us, he added silently. They had split into two groups upon arriving at the canyon, and Ishizu and Rishid were both in the other one, along with Yugi and Tristan.  
  
Marik, who was deeply unconscious by this time, couldn't answer his friend.  
  
"Well, he did survive a plane crash," Téa said pointedly. "It's natural that he'd be hurt from it."  
  
Seto grunted. "I suppose it's a good thing I thought ahead enough to bring one of my doctors." He had actually done so at Mokuba's pleading request. Heaven knows Seto couldn't say no to his little brother, especially when the kid was so worried about his friend.  
  
Mokuba's eyes filled with tears. "Marik?" he said quaveringly. "Marik, come on! Get up . . . please. . . ." He had seen Marik slump to the ground a few short minutes before and had been horrified, unable to bear seeing someone so special to him in such pain. He breathed a prayer of thanks that Seto hadn't been hurt that badly as well.  
  
The doctor knelt down and gently examined Marik, wanting to do so now and not move him. "No broken bones," he reported after an endless moment, shaking his head. "He's been bruised pretty badly, though, and he has a nasty bump on his head." The bump had originally been from when the unknown assailant had hit Marik viciously in the field, but later on the poor boy had been hit again in the same spot. "The whole thing must have been a horrible shock to his system."  
  
"But he's gonna get better, right?" Mokuba pleaded, hugging Marik tearfully. "He's gotta get better!!"  
  
The doctor smiled kindly. "I have no doubt that he will. I just hope his siblings come soon. . . ." He glanced about, as if expecting to see them.  
  
"Maybe they got in some kind of trouble," Téa worried.  
  
****  
  
Unfortunately, Téa was right. The canyons were not a good place to be wandering after night, and especially not in this particular Halloween season.  
  
"I think I heard something in those bushes!" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
"Yeah," Tristan said grimly, "I did too."  
  
"Marik?" Ishizu called hopefully.  
  
"Brother, where are you?" Rishid added his own cry, praying that his brother was not badly injured . . . or worse. The firefighters had said there were no human remains that they had found so far in the wreckage, and that Marik might have gotten away—which was, of course, what those who loved him were praying for.  
  
A ghastly hand now rose up from the ground in front of them and they all jumped in astonishment.  
  
"Leave this place," a vile voice hissed. "Leave or you shall all suffer the fate of the plane's pilot and his passenger!" 


	5. New Dangers

Tristan's eyes went wide. "WHAT?! Is this freaky hand trying to tell us that Marik's dead?! No way!"  
  
Ishizu looked rattled, but she refused to accept what was being said. "It is not real," she insisted. "This is a cheap Hollywood prop. And Marik is alive."  
  
To prove his sister's point, Rishid went forward and kicked the hand, causing it to break apart and reveal the electronic workings inside. "We have heard enough of these lies!" he screamed, certain that someone was hiding nearby. "Where is our brother?!"  
  
"In the afterlife," the same voice responded.  
  
"You lie," Ishizu hissed.  
  
"Do I?" The voice echoed all around them, making it impossible to figure out which direction it truly was coming from. "No, he was laying on that piece of debris, not merely unconscious, as you assumed—but dead. Oh so very dead. His poor body just couldn't handle the crash."  
  
"How do you know Ishizu's vision?!" Yugi demanded angrily while Rishid gave a strangled cry and Ishizu tried not to lose control. Something seemed extremely fishy, and though the Ishtars were quite certain that their beloved brother was still alive, this was so terribly unnerving.  
  
Now silence reigned. No matter how they tried for the next several minutes, they could not get any more answers out of the voice.  
  
"Guys?" Tristan said uncomfortably. "Do you think Marik *is* dead?"  
  
"He is not dead," Ishizu retorted, though it was obvious from her eyes that she wasn't sure.  
  
"We shall keep looking," Rishid vowed. "And we will find him—alive."  
  
****  
  
Mokuba grabbed Marik's arm, again begging for his friend to get up. Marik didn't move and continued to lay still among the leaves, much to his young comrade's distress.  
  
"Why won't he wake up?!" Mokuba wailed. "WHY??!!"  
  
"He's exhausted," the doctor replied, straightening up from cleaning the boy's wounds. "Let him rest." He sighed. "Though I wish he didn't have to rest here. . . ."  
  
"If only Ishizu and Rishid were here," Téa said sadly.  
  
"Man, I'm gonna go find them!" Joey cried suddenly, leaping up and running off into the brush. He knew that Marik needed to get home, but they couldn't leave without the others. And since Marik's condition didn't seem to be serious, Joey hoped that there would be enough time to find them without there being a problem.  
  
"Wheeler!" Seto yelled in irritation. After a moment he crossed his arms and grunted. "Idiot."  
  
Téa sighed. She knew it was dangerous for Joey to wander through the woods alone, but he had already gone too far in for anyone to successfully follow him. So for now she leaned over Marik and gently draped her sweater across him, letting him lay his head in her lap. Poor Marik, she thought to herself. He's come through so many trials lately. . . .  
  
He had repented at the end of Battle City and then had gone off on his yacht with Ishizu and Rishid, supposedly to return to Egypt. But because Shadi had told them that there was no longer a need to guard the Pharaoh's tomb, they had soon returned to move to Domino City permanently, wanting to get away from the bad memories their old home held. Marik hadn't been trusted by hardly anyone, however—at least not until he had gotten amnesia and had become entangled with the gang's fifth mystery. Once his memory had been restored, he had then nearly died to save the ones his Yami had taken captive, and finally the others saw that he could be trusted. Since then, Marik had experienced many more terrible things, not the least of which was his being captured in order to be sacrificed to a great creature of evil.  
  
Téa looked down at him, seeing how tired and haggard he appeared. Marik, like Seto Kaiba, was so much different than he used to be. Where once he had been cruel and angry and full of confusion, now he was kind and sweet and one of the best friends one could have. It was quite a change.  
  
"Are you sure he's gonna be okay?" Mokuba demanded of the doctor again.  
  
"Quite certain," the doctor told him, shaking his head. "All of this was miraculous. He shouldn't even be alive, let alone in such good condition. Someone wanted him here, for one reason or another."  
  
****  
  
Joey was running through the woods, calling at the top of his lungs for Ishizu or Rishid or any of the others when he abruptly fell through a loose piece of ground into a previously covered hole.  
  
"Hey!! What the heck?!" he yelped, staring up at the sky far above him. Realizing it would be futile to try climbing up, the Brooklyn boy started looking for other ways out. Unfortunately, there seemed to be absolutely none other than straight up. Someone seemed to just have dug this hole in the earth and then covered it over with twigs and branches, hoping someone would fall in it. But who would do it? And why?!  
  
A hissing sound immediately came to his attention then and he saw eyes gleaming in the near-darkness. A snake was in there with him! What if it was poisonous?! At any rate, Joey did not feel like being bitten today, whether it was poisonous or not. He had to get out, and fast!!  
  
Frantically he clawed at the vine-covered wall and then stared. Where had the vines come from?! He could've sworn they weren't there before. After making certain that they weren't poison ivy, he grabbed on tightly and pulled. Maybe he could get up yet!  
  
He was about halfway up when the vine started to tear. Flailing about in panic, Joey tried to grab onto the next one over before he fell back down to the bottom.  
  
"Joseph?!"  
  
Joey looked up to see an utterly shocked Rishid staring down at him. He didn't know if he'd ever felt so relieved in his life. "Hey!!" he screamed. "Can you give me a hand?! I'm in a kinda jam and ol' Fork-Tongue down there isn't too happy that I fell in on him!"  
  
Rishid blinked in surprise and then straightened up. "Just a moment." Quickly he went over to where a thick vine was and then threw it down to the boy. "Grab that and I will pull you up."  
  
"Oh wow, thanks, man!" Joey said in relief, clutching the new vine so tightly that he was surprised it didn't crumble in his grasp.  
  
Once he was on solid ground again, Rishid—as well as Ishizu, Yugi, and Tristan—all looked at Joey as if demanding an explanation for what had happened.  
  
"What were you doing in a hole with a snake?!" Tristan cried.  
  
"Man, I dunno!" Joey retorted after again thanking Rishid for rescuing him. "Someone must've wanted me to fall in there!" Quickly he recounted his experience in full. At the conclusion, the others agreed that it had most likely been a carefully thought-out trap.  
  
"The only question is, did they mean to entrap you, or someone else?" Rishid mused before turning his attention to other matters.  
  
"Why are you separated from the others, Joseph?" he asked now.  
  
"I was lookin' for you guys!" Joey explained, then going on to tell about Marik.  
  
"Then he is alive!" Yugi said happily.  
  
"Yeah," Joey said slowly. "He's doin' pretty well, actually, but the doc Kaiba brought with us thinks he should go home and rest. He kinda passed out on us. . . ."  
  
"Oh!" Ishizu cried, her eyes wide.  
  
"Can you lead us back to him?" Rishid wanted to know.  
  
"Heck, yeah, I can!" Joey assured him, just hoping that he knew the way back. "Just follow me!"  
  
****  
  
Back in the heart of Domino City, Bakura's radio show dragged on. After the seventh call or so, the boy just stared up at the ceiling in despair. The animal control officer had come in a while back and had asked if either Bakura or his "brother" had seen any strange animals around. Of course they both said no, but both of them wondered if werewolves were actually on the prowl in the station.  
  
"What kind of animal have you picked up?" Yami Bakura had asked with interest.  
  
"A big dog," the reply had been. "Looks kind of like a wolf, almost. Dangerous beast. If this kinda thing is going to go on, the station will have to be shut down."  
  
Bakura sighed now, just wishing the radio show they were doing would end. It was such torture for him, and so far he really wasn't finding out anything that would help things.  
  
"Morons!" Yami Bakura was muttering now. "I'm surrounded by morons!"  
  
Bakura went pink. "YAMI!!" he scolded.  
  
Yami Bakura grabbed a piece of pizza and munched thoughtfully before punching the button to allow the next caller to come on the air. "I am hoping you have something useful to tell me," he said, licking the cheese from his lips.  
  
"Well, I'm afraid I do!" was the frightened reply. At first Bakura thought the caller was frightened because of his Yami, but with the next sentence the truth was revealed. "I swear, the canyons behind this city are dangerous!"  
  
Yami Bakura looked bored. "And you were there, I suppose?"  
  
"Yes! And I saw something horrible!!" The caller paused for a moment before continuing. "I'm assuming you've heard about the plane crash up there?"  
  
Yami Bakura grunted. "There are plane crashes everywhere, woman."  
  
Bakura perked up, wondering if this person had heard something about Marik. The others had managed to come in for a moment before they had left and they had told Bakura where they were going and why. Of course Bakura hadn't been able to go with them, but he had wished them well and was praying that they would find Marik.  
  
"This one was absolutely nightmarish!" the woman insisted. "Both people on board were killed. I happened to see the crash site, and . . . and . . ." She drew a nervous breath. "Then I saw the ghost of the pilot!"  
  
Now Yami Bakura looked vaguely interested. "Oh? And what did the pilot say?" he wanted to know.  
  
"He . . . he wants revenge," the caller replied. "He didn't speak, but I could see it in his eyes!"  
  
"Revenge on who?!" Bakura exclaimed, leaning over.   
  
Oreo meowed, attacking the final piece of pizza in the box.  
  
"That . . . I couldn't say," the caller replied before abruptly their conversation was cut off.  
  
"Hmm, well, that was intriguing," Yami Bakura purred. "Here's a ghostly track for you foolish mortals while your simple brains ponder on the news of the canyon's spectre."  
  
While the song played, Yami Bakura conversed with Bakura.  
  
"Yami, do you think the caller was actually telling the truth?!" Bakura exclaimed.  
  
"It's hard to say," Yami Bakura shrugged. "Some mortals let their imaginations run away with them."  
  
Bakura lapsed into silence, fearful for his friend Marik. Supposing the person was telling the truth. . . . What if Marik had been there and now was . . .  
  
"Bakura!" Bruce cried, interrupting his thoughts and bursting into the studio. "You're alright, I hope!"  
  
"Um, why, yes," the British boy blinked in surprise.  
  
"The dog didn't come in here," Yami Bakura grunted.  
  
Bruce shook his head. "That's not what I'm talking about!" he exclaimed.  
  
"What is it then?!" Bakura yelped.  
  
"Some nutcase is wandering through the station, claiming to be Frankenstein!" Bruce moaned. "It's terrible!"  
  
****  
  
In the meantime, Joey had successfully gotten himself and those with him lost in the thick woods.  
  
"For Pete's sake!!" the boy wailed, messing his hair up. "I KNOW I came through here!!!! I KNOW I DID!!!"  
  
"You must calm yourself, Joseph," Ishizu said quietly, though she was finding herself very tense by now. She just wanted to get to her precious brother!  
  
"Think, Joey," Yugi said kindly. "Is there something you remember seeing when you came looking for us, something that would help identify which way you came and where we'll need to go?"  
  
Joey paused, trying to remember. "I dunno," he said at last, shrugging helplessly.  
  
Tristan sighed, obviously figuring that they would be stuck there for quite some time.  
  
Luckily for them, they were much closer than they thought.  
  
"Joey?" Téa's voice called. "Yugi?! Are you guys there?"  
  
"Téa?" Yugi called back hopefully. "We're here!!"  
  
"Follow my voice!" Téa directed.  
  
Before long the others had reached the clearing and Ishizu and Rishid both hurried to Marik, who was starting to rouse a bit by now. Mokuba hadn't strayed far from his friend and now grinned in delight to see that he was awakening.  
  
"Brother!!" Ishizu cried in happiness, running to Marik's side and embracing him. Rishid quickly followed, saying prayers of thanks that the boy's life had again been spared.  
  
Marik hugged them both, feeling a bit confused as to how his siblings had gotten there but then was just relieved that they were. He blinked at them sleepily, still exhausted from his ordeal.  
  
"You have been through so much, brother," Rishid said softly, holding him close. "You should rest now." There were so many things he would like to know, such as how Marik had wound up on the airplane in the first place, but it could all wait. Marik's health was more important now.  
  
Marik tilted his head to the side, still looking confused. "Where is it?" he asked softly.  
  
"Where's what?" Mokuba asked, looking even more confused than his friend seemed to be.  
  
Marik rubbed his head, only now remembering something he'd seen just before he'd passed into the darkness. "The . . ." He moaned, feeling the effects of being hit on the head twice in the same place. "That grotesque creature," he managed to say at last. "It . . . it looked like a badly burned body . . . like the pilot's. . . ."  
  
Ishizu's eyes narrowed in concern. "There is nothing such as that around, brother," she told him firmly.  
  
"But it was here," Marik insisted, starting to slump against Rishid and looking as though he wasn't entirely with it.  
  
"He must have been hallucinating," Seto said coldly.  
  
A burning branch was suddenly thrown at them from somewhere in the near distance and a maniacal cackle met their ears.  
  
"Oh man!" Joey yelped. "What if it wasn't a hallucination?! What if the thing's here now, tryin' to set us all on fire?!" 


	6. Frankenstein

Everyone gave Joey odd looks at his remark.  
  
"Do not be ridiculous," Ishizu said finally. "The pilot's ghost is not seeking revenge. Even if he wanted it, he would have no reason to come after us."  
  
"Unless he was mad 'cause Marik didn't get his body out of the plane in time," Tristan suggested.  
  
"How reassuring," Marik said sarcastically. "The man was already dead. There was nothing I could have done for him. And the plane ignited before I could retrieve the body."  
  
"No one is blaming you, brother," Rishid said gently. "You've had a wretched experience that was not your fault." He turned to look at the burning twig, which was now shooting off sparks. "Someone living is doing this, perhaps to give the illusion of a fire ghost."  
  
A horrible, unearthly laugh echoed around them. "Are you certain?" an equally grotesque voice cackled. "No, my friends, I have come back from the grave, seeking my revenge on those who sabotaged my plane!"  
  
"Who are you really?" Yugi yelled.  
  
"I told you," the eerie voice retorted. "Marik Ishtar knows who I am. And all of you will be seeing more of me!" The laugh faded into silence and the burning branch abruptly ceased to glow.  
  
"A ghostly flame!" Joey cried, completely unnerved. "Oh man . . ."  
  
Calmly Téa bent down and retrieved the stick, wrapping it in a scarf. "This could be an important clue," she declared. "Let's get home and we can examine it more there!"  
  
"That's a great idea," Yugi smiled. "We have Marik back safely, so there's no need for us to stay here any longer. We'll just tell the firefighters we found him and then leave."  
  
Rishid turned to his younger brother in concern. "You shouldn't walk any further until you've rested," he said.  
  
Marik crossed his arms. "Really, Rishid, I'm alright," he tried to assure him. To prove it, the Egyptian boy pulled himself up, swaying violently.  
  
Rishid caught the boy before he could collapse to the ground. "You are still weak," he said softly. "I don't want you to swoon again." Despite Marik's protests, the man lifted his brother into his arms to carry him. A slow smile came across his face then. "But you must be starting to feel like your old self if you can be protesting."  
  
Ishizu chuckled.  
  
****  
  
Back at KETY, Bakura breathed a sigh of relief as his nightmare ended and the On the Air button went off.  
  
"That was horrible!" he moaned. "Oh, if I have to go through that again . . ."  
  
"Then you will simply grin and bear it," Yami Bakura smirked, standing up and rolling his eyes as Oreo licked the microphone again.  
  
"Why on earth does she do that?!" Bakura cried in disbelief.  
  
A chuckle came from behind them and they both turned to see a strange, raven-haired girl standing there.  
  
"Must be the catnip," she grinned.  
  
"Catnip?!" Yami Bakura repeated. "Why, exactly, is there catnip on the microphone, woman?!"  
  
The newcomer laughed. "I'm always carrying some," she replied as Oreo made a beeline for her. "Comes from having a lot of cats to care for."  
  
Bakura had to chuckle as Oreo started climbing into the woman's bag. "So . . . do you work here?" he asked now, watching as the cat found a catnip mouse and meowed in delight.  
  
"That's right," the woman chirped, letting Oreo take the mouse. "This is usually the studio where I broadcast from. I do the show when JP's and then yours end, meaning that I stay up for a good portion of the early morning hours." She glanced at the clock, which now read 2am. "You can call me Delya. And I know who you are."  
  
Bakura went pink. "Oh. . . . Well . . ." He scratched his cheek and bent down to get Oreo.  
  
"She can keep the mouse," Delya smiled. "I have a million of them."  
  
"That's very sweet of you," Bakura said sincerely.  
  
Oreo meowed her agreement.  
  
"Be safe going home," Delya warned. "There's that weird Frankenstein creature roaming through the station."  
  
"Oh my," Bakura said with a blink. "I'd forgotten about that. . . ." Idly he wondered where Bruce was, since he usually came in at the end of Bakura's shows to say how much he enjoyed them.  
  
"Just some joker, most likely," Delya shrugged. "But I saw him on the security cameras and he looks convincing. He must be pretty strong. I wouldn't mess with him for anything. Unless he tried to harm my precious kitties, of course," she added then.  
  
Bakura could understand her feelings. "I hope you'll stay safe," he said slowly.  
  
"She'll be fine," Yami Bakura said impatiently, heading for the door. "Now come on!"  
  
"Yeah. Just go with your brother, honey," Delya encouraged.  
  
Bakura finally relented, amused at everyone calling the thief his brother.  
  
****  
  
As Bakura walked down the halls, he noted how eerily silent it all was. Usually there were more people around, even at two in the morning. What could be going on? Had everyone fled because of the "Frankenstein"?  
  
"I think we should find Bruce before we leave," Bakura said uneasily.  
  
Yami Bakura grunted. "What for? I would think you would just want to go, especially since Bruce would get at you to do another show."  
  
Bakura went pink. "Well, I don't want to do another show," he said, "but what if Bruce got hurt by whatever is prowling about?!"  
  
Yami Bakura took Oreo into his arms, stroking her fur. "You're too soft-hearted."  
  
Bakura simply blinked at the tomb raider, obviously thinking that he was one to talk. "Let's go down this way," the boy directed.  
  
Knowing that he would get nowhere with his protests, Yami Bakura reluctantly gave in.  
  
Without warning all the lights in the hallway shut off, plunging them into darkness.  
  
"Yami??!!" Bakura yelped, feeling along the wall. "Yami, are you still here?!"  
  
"Of course I am," the thief said irritably. "Where would I go?"  
  
Bakura sighed, then turned his attention to the problem at hand. "This is terrible! Someone must have purposely done this!!" he cried, glancing out a window and seeing that the other buildings' lights were still running.  
  
"Most likely it's just a fuse," Yami Bakura retorted.  
  
Bakura was about to reply when the wall he was still leaning on opened up and swallowed him. To his displeasure he found himself falling down what almost seemed to be a laundry shoot. When he reached the bottom, he happened to fall out in a room that had obviously once been the vault when the building had served as a bank many years ago.  
  
"Oh my," Bakura exclaimed, his eyes wide. Slowly he got up and walked through the doorless entry out into another hallway. Maybe if I follow this, I'll get back to where I should be! he hoped.  
  
He hadn't gone far when he found a stairwell and decided to climb up. At the top, he turned the doorknob and found himself in Bruce's dimly lighted office.  
  
"Um, hello?" Bakura now called uncomfortably. "I'm sorry to intrude. . . ."  
  
His voice echoed emptily around the room and then a nearly still figure at the other end slowly began to turn. Bakura knew this wasn't Bruce. The person had dark hair and a muscular, strong body. As he started to turn, Bakura spotted a scar that went from the person's neck up to the middle of his right cheek.  
  
"Oh. Oh my," the British boy cried again, realizing that this person wasn't friendly. He barely had time enough to duck before a knife was thrown directly at him. As he lay sprawled on the floor, heavy footsteps met his ears and he knew the person was escaping.  
  
A low moan met Bakura's ears now and a new thought suddenly dawned on him. What if that strange person had hurt Bruce?!  
  
Quickly he leaped up and ran across the room. To his horror, he found Bruce laying on the floor behind his desk, clutching a horrible wound in his chest.  
  
The station manager fixed his glassy eyes on the boy, smiling in relief. "Thank goodness! I was afraid my top deejay was going to be skewered!"  
  
"What happened?!" Bakura demanded, ignoring that remark.  
  
"What does it look like?" Bruce sighed. "That . . . that guy . . . he tried to kill me!" Shakily he held up his other hand, which was clutching a grotesque mask. "That was the Frankenstein guy." He looked at Bakura urgently. "Did you see who it was? Did you see his face?!"  
  
"Well, no," Bakura admitted as he tried to help Bruce stop the bleeding, "but he did have a terrible scar on the right side of his neck! It stretched clear up to his cheek!"  
  
Bruce just looked confused. "I've never seen someone like that," he said.  
  
"For right now let's just worry about getting help for you!" Bakura exclaimed. "You've been stabbed!"  
  
"Oh, I'll be fine," Bruce said nonchalantly and then immediately slumped over.  
  
Bakura's eyes widened. "Bruce??!!" he cried, becoming panicked. "HELP!! OH, PLEASE, SOMEONE HELP!!!" He checked for a pulse and then swallowed hard.  
  
****  
  
Marik looked up at Ishizu and Rishid as everyone drove home in Seto's limo. "We need to find out why there was an airplane in the field behind the radio station," the Egyptian boy managed to say.  
  
"Then I did hear it taking off," Ishizu said quietly, keeping an arm around her exhausted brother. "Yes, we must discover why it was there."  
  
"And why the pilot abducted you," Rishid added, staring in disbelief at a string of bruises visible on Marik's exposed waist. He could hardly believe that the boy had come out of this with only a few cuts and some painful bruises. His brother could have died, and most likely would have if a higher power hadn't intervened. Gently Rishid moved closer and pulled Marik close to his heart, knowing how close he had come to losing this precious boy.  
  
Marik knew as well that he could have lost his life and so he settled down close in between his siblings and started to doze, feeling peaceful and safe.  
  
Suddenly his eyes snapped open again. "The dog!" he cried.  
  
Everyone turned to stare at him. "Dog?" Téa repeated.  
  
"What dog, Marik?" Ishizu asked.  
  
Marik took a deep breath and explained about the events leading up to his abduction and then what he remembered had happened afterward. "I didn't see the dog on the airplane," he concluded, "so they must have left it behind. It could be back at the station right now!"  
  
Seto grunted. "It could be the same one that got tranquilized," he said, crossing his arms, "in which case we wouldn't have to worry."  
  
Marik blinked at him in confusion and then Mokuba hurriedly explained of their misadventure. "I suppose it could have been the same dog," Marik said slowly when he heard the end of the tale, "but I guess we can't know for certain. . . ." He sighed, confusion and disorientation again creeping over him due to the harsh blows he had received.  
  
"No, but I do know for certain that you must sleep," Ishizu said, a trace of a smile on her lovely face.  
  
Ordinarily Marik might protest, but for now he was much too tired. He started to drift into a state somewhere between sleep and unconsciousness, having a strange dream about a crash and screams. Then he was falling . . . falling . . . falling from the sky onto something hard. He wasn't alone, either. . . . Someone else had fallen with him, holding onto him tightly. . . .  
  
Abruptly he snapped awake, cold chills running up his spine. He was laying on the floor of the car, clutched to Rishid's heart. Painful moans from the others met his ears and then he knew what had happened—they had been in a car crash.  
  
"Rishid?!" he whispered, gently shaking his brother. He received no reply and felt the uneasiness within him growing. "Rishid??! Get up, brother!! Get up!!" he screamed desperately. "PLEASE!!"  
  
Still Rishid did not answer his pleas and Marik bit his lip. No . . . no . . . this was still his nightmare. Rishid would get up. . . . He had to get up!!! But . . . it didn't seem as though he was going to. 


	7. Traitor

Yugi looked around blearily, trying to focus in the near-darkness. Vaguely he was aware of agonized screams and then realized that it was Marik begging for Rishid to move.  
  
"Marik?" he tried to say, but it came out as a rasping whisper.  
  
Joey was sitting next to him, a wide-eyed, stunned look on his face. "Yug . . . did someone just crash into us?!" he exclaimed, rubbing his head.  
  
"I . . . I don't remember," Yugi admitted, still dazed from the impact. "But . . . I think Rishid's hurt. . . ." He struggled to get his seatbelt undone so he could go over and help, but his hands were shaking too badly to make the button work.  
  
"Someone shoved us into a ditch," Seto spoke up coldly, holding Mokuba close against him. The younger boy was shivering, his eyes wide with fright. "They shoved us into the ditch and then drove off. My chauffeur will get us out, but first we'll need to see if everyone is alright." Quickly he turned on the overhead lights, bathing the limo in brightness.  
  
Marik didn't even notice as the lights came on. He continued trying to awaken his brother, panic showing in his lavender eyes. "Rishid!!! Wake up, my brother . . . please . . . wake up . . ." The boy's voice dwindled to a defeated whisper as he felt dizziness brought on by both physical and emotional shocks come over him. "Rishid . . . no, you have to get up! You have to!!" Tears spilled from his eyes then and Marik collapsed back against the still body, crying uncontrollably.  
  
Somewhere through the mists of his confused mind another thought came to him then and he tried to rise. "Where is Ishizu?!" he screamed. "Where is she??!"  
  
Yugi and the others looked around at each other in shock, realizing they didn't know. Ishizu wasn't anywhere to be seen.  
  
Seeing this in their eyes, Marik looked down again, despair blanketing him. "Ishizu is missing . . . Rishid won't wake up. . . ." He trailed off, looking so lost and scared and so unlike the strong-willed Marik everyone was so familiar with. "Why?" he sobbed. "WHY??!!"  
  
No one knew how to answer him.  
  
"And why didn't the seatbelts work??!" Anger was starting to show in Marik's eyes now. "Did someone tamper with them??!" He was still held fast in Rishid's arms. The man's last coherent thought had been to protect his brother at all costs, and now not even Marik himself could loosen his brother's grip.  
  
A low thudding sound came from outside and everyone jumped in surprise, turning to face the side of the limo from which it had come. What was happening now? Were they going to be ambushed? Did their assailants want to make certain everyone was dead?  
  
"Sister?!" Marik called hopefully.  
  
The door opened slowly and Ishizu's battered form stood in the doorway. She had been thrown from the limo into a soft patch of grass, but it had taken her a few minutes to recover from the shock. Now she surveyed the scene before her in horror before stumbling inside and kneeling beside her brothers.  
  
At last Mokuba snapped out of his shock and looked around, shocked at what he saw. "Big brother?" he whispered.  
  
Seto continued to hold him close. "It's alright," he said softly.  
  
Mokuba hugged Seto back, but then pulled away and ran to Marik. "What's wrong?!" he gasped.  
  
Marik looked up at both Mokuba and Ishizu in despair. "Rishid's hurt," he replied tearily.  
  
Now the doctor, who was still traveling with them, came over to examine him. Marik gave him a suspicious look, suddenly not trusting him. Ishizu tensed as well, but otherwise gave no sign of thinking things were amiss.  
  
"Can you help him?" she asked calmly.  
  
"I can try," the doctor responded, struggling to pry Rishid's arms away from Marik.  
  
Now Rishid gave the first sign of life he'd shown since before the crash—he moaned and clutched Marik almost frantically, not knowing who was trying to take his brother away.  
  
"Rishid . . ." Marik gave a soft smile, relieved that at least his brother was still alive. Then he looked up at the doctor, narrowing his eyes. "Why didn't you come sooner?" he demanded.  
  
The doctor blinked. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Why didn't you come sooner?!" Marik repeated, his voice climbing. "Did you tamper with the seatbelts? You would have had the perfect opportunity. WERE YOU TRYING TO KILL US??!!"  
  
Mokuba's eyes widened and he also turned to stare. "You work for my brother!" he cried. "Did you betray him?! Did you betray all of us?!"  
  
Now the doctor held up a syringe. "Don't be ridiculous. Now stand back so I can treat Mr. Ishtar."  
  
Marik glared. "Stay away from my brother," he hissed. "You're not here to help him."  
  
By now everyone else had gathered around, wondering what was going on and if Marik's accusations were true.  
  
Abruptly the doctor lunged forward, trying to jab the syringe into Marik's arm. The boy dodged, rolling across the floor to get out of the way and pulling Rishid with him.  
  
"So. It is true," Ishizu said angrily. "You wanted to kill us!"  
  
The doctor merely sneered at her.  
  
"I've heard enough," Seto said irritably. "You are fired. Get out of my limousine now. You can just walk back to the city on your own."  
  
"Oh, I don't think so." The doctor turned, now trying to use the syringe on Seto.  
  
"BIG BROTHER!!!" Mokuba shrieked.  
  
Instantly Seto moved forward with ease, forcing his elbow into the man's ribs. The doctor screamed in pain, falling to the car floor. Seto then punched him, sending him into unconsciousness. Next he grabbed the syringe and shot the contents out the window before someone could be hurt by them.  
  
"That was awesome, Seto," Mokuba grinned before turning his attention back to Marik.  
  
Now Rishid stirred again, starting to revive at last.  
  
Marik perked up hopefully, still so very weak from everything and feeling as though he would pass out again. "Brother?" he exclaimed. "Rishid?"  
  
The Egyptian man moaned, trying to open his eyes. "Marik?" He couldn't remember much about the crash, or why he was laying on the floor with a terrible headache—but he did remember that he had been protecting his brother. If Marik was safe, then he didn't care how many headaches he suffered. He loved his brother more than anything.  
  
Immediately Rishid was engulfed in a tight hug as Marik gave a cry of joy and pulled him close. "Oh Rishid . . . I was so worried, my brother. . . . So very worried. . . ."  
  
Mokuba grinned as he watched his friend embrace his brother. "So we're all okay, then?" he asked, looking up at Seto.  
  
"Yeah," Seto smiled.  
  
****  
  
Yami Bakura was feeling his way down the still-darkened hall when he heard Bakura screaming for help. "What has that moron gotten himself into now?" the thief muttered angrily.   
  
Eventually he tracked the screams to what he recognized as Bruce's office and looked in. "What's been happening in here?!" he growled, seeing Bakura's panicked expression.  
  
"Yami, someone stabbed Bruce!!" Bakura replied, his eyes wide with fright.  
  
Yami Bakura grunted. "What for? Was he forcing one too many people into doing radio shows?"  
  
"YAMI!!" Bakura cried, not in the mood for the thief's cynicism. "Please call 911 immediately!!" He pointed to the phone on the wall. "I'd do it, but I need to keep trying to help get the bleeding stopped!"  
  
The tomb raider growled, definitely not happy. "Fine, if it means getting out of here." Now that the radio show was over, all he wanted was to go home to his chocolate milk and his window seat. "What do you want me to say?" It had suddenly dawned on him that he had never called 911 before.  
  
The same thought had just occurred to Bakura, and he prayed that his Yami wouldn't say something embarrassing. "Just tell them to send an ambulance here and give the address," he directed frantically. "Tell them that a man's been stabbed and then ask if there's anything we can be doing while we wait."  
  
"Meow," Oreo called, nudging the phone toward Yami Bakura, who snarled and picked it up in annoyance.  
  
"Get me 911, woman," the thief barked when he heard the operator come on.  
  
"Yami, you're supposed to dial it yourself!" Bakura moaned.  
  
"I'll do whatever I please," Yami Bakura retorted. Once he heard the dispatcher come on, he gruffly began relaying what Bakura had told him to. "The station manager of KETY was stabbed in his office," he snarled. "Send an ambulance and tell me what to tell my absurd descendant to do in the meantime!"  
  
Bakura groaned loudly, feeling his face flushing with embarrassment.  
  
"Yes, he's doing that—trying to stop the bleeding!" Yami Bakura snapped. ". . . I know I called him my descendant, you moron!! That's what he is! Do you realize how old I am?!"  
  
"Yami, they'll come to take you to the asylum!" Bakura scolded. He didn't feel like trying to explain about ancient Egyptian spirits and wind up being locked up as well, and the last thing he needed was his Yami starting something with his "I'll say whatever I please" attitude.  
  
"Oh forget that!" the tomb raider growled now into the phone, completely ignoring Bakura. "Just send the ambulance or your soul will be stolen!" Before the person could get in another word, he hung up.  
  
And once again, Bakura felt ready to cry.  
  
****  
  
Luckily, the ambulance did come and no one got carted to the asylum. Bakura explained what had happened while Bruce was loaded on a stretcher and into the vehicle.  
  
"Did you see who did this?" one of the paramedics asked with a frown.  
  
Bakura gulped, suddenly remembering how the assassin had thrown a knife at him. "Yes," he said softly, "but I couldn't clearly see the face." He described the scar, however, and the paramedic's expression only darkened.  
  
"He meant business, that's for sure," she said. "You'd better be careful, kid. You don't know what he might do next, but he may come after you."  
  
Bakura's eyes widened, the thought never having occurred to him before. "Will Bruce be alright?" he asked, pushing thoughts of insane hitmen chasing him out of his head.  
  
"Time will tell," the girl replied, "but we don't have much of it."  
  
Before long the ambulance had driven off, leaving Bakura and his Yami standing around on the sidewalk.  
  
"Well, come on, you moron!" Yami Bakura snapped. "Let's go home!"  
  
Bakura turned worried eyes to face him. "But Yami, what if there are others who are hurt?!" he exclaimed.  
  
"We are not going to search through that entire building!" the tomb raider retorted huffily.  
  
"Well, go home if you want to!" Bakura yelled then. "But I'm going back in to make certain everyone else is alright! And the police have to be called!"  
  
Yami Bakura threw his hands up in frustration. "Is that all you ever think about—calls??!" he screamed.  
  
Oreo meowed from somewhere within his shirt.  
  
****  
  
As Bakura rushed down the dark halls of KETY studios, he wondered where JP was. Had he gone home? Had he . . . gotten hurt? Bakura had just realized that he hadn't seen the friendly deejay in quite some time.  
  
Happily, his fears were unfounded. JP soon rounded a corner and blinked at Bakura in confusion. "Bakura! What are you still doing here?" he exclaimed. "Your show's been over for quite some time!"  
  
Quickly Bakura explained about the Frankenstein person and what had happened to Bruce. JP registered genuine shock.  
  
"Maybe this means Bruce isn't guilty after all," he mused.  
  
"I hope so," Bakura said fervently.  
  
Out of the corner of his eye, the boy suddenly thought he saw someone familiar—someone like the mysterious, veiled stranger who had assisted them in Boston—but when he turned to look, no one was there.  
  
"Something wrong?" JP asked.  
  
"Oh, um . . . no," Bakura replied hurriedly. "Everything's fine." He smiled.  
  
****  
  
After a trip to the police station to drop off the crooked doctor and briefly explain things, Seto had taken the Ishtars home first, since they needed so desperately to rest. Now the two older Egyptian siblings were watching Marik sleep, still amazed that he was relatively alright after what had happened.  
  
"Are you certain you are alright, Ishizu?" Rishid asked, turning to her. Ishizu had briefly mentioned how she had been thrown out of the limo upon its fall into the ditch, but she hadn't gone into any details.  
  
"Yes, quite," she said softly, gently touching his arm. Rishid always thinks about others before himself, the woman thought to herself. And Marik is that way too. "And what of yourself, Rishid? You have such a nasty bump on your head!"  
  
"I am alright," Rishid smiled, before leaning over Marik and adjusting the quilt around his brother's bare shoulders. Marik tensed for a brief second and then relaxed, burrowing into the comforter.  
  
"What about that strange beast that was in our yard earlier?" Rishid asked now, his eyes narrowing. "Where is it now?"  
  
"I do not know," Ishizu replied. "It has vanished. But I sense that it has not gone far."  
  
She tensed herself now, feeling certain that she heard a footfall on the stairs. Was someone—or something—in their house?! 


	8. Rishid's Problem

Rishid narrowed his eyes, going to the doorway and looking out. "Something is here," he said, voicing Ishizu's own suspicions. "I am going to investigate."  
  
Ishizu looked immensely concerned. "Please be careful, my brother," she said softly, going over to Marik and sitting down beside him. She would have liked to investigate as well, but she knew someone needed to stay with Marik.  
  
"I will be," Rishid smiled reassuringly.  
  
Marik stirred after Rishid had left. The boy rolled onto his other side and opened his eyes, blinking at Ishizu. "Is something wrong?" he asked.  
  
Ishizu stroked her brother's hair. "Everything will be fine," she said comfortingly. "Rishid is just going to check on something."  
  
"I sensed something evil," Marik whispered uneasily. "It crept into my dreams." He struggled to sit up. "Rishid may need help!"  
  
At that moment a pain-filled scream ripped through the air and Marik sprang out of bed, his naturally tan complexion paling. "RISHID!!" he cried, running to the door and throwing it open. Ishizu, deeply concerned as well, quickly followed. To their horror, Rishid was scrapping with an unidentifiable creature on the floor. His arm had been clawed badly, hence his scream of anguish.  
  
"RISHID!!" Marik screamed again.  
  
Abruptly Rishid shoved the animal aside, sending it slamming into the wall. As he sat there, clutching his arm and breathing heavily, the creature dissolved into dust.  
  
Marik and Ishizu only glanced at the ashes for a brief moment before running to Rishid. "Oh, my brother," Ishizu whispered.  
  
"Rishid, are you badly hurt?" Marik cried, kneeling down beside him. "Let me see your arm!"  
  
Groaning, the Egyptian man leaned back against the wall and started to shake, refusing to let go of his injured arm. Blood trickled through his fingers, dripping to the floor.  
  
"Please, Rishid!" Marik begged, growing more frantic. "Let me look!!"  
  
"No," Rishid retorted.  
  
"He is growing weaker," Ishizu said softly, putting her arm around him gently and letting him lay his head on her shoulder.  
  
"So fast?!" Marik exclaimed, again trying to get Rishid's hand pried away. "Please, my brother!! I only want to help you!"  
  
"Leave me alone!" Rishid thundered.  
  
Marik drew back as if he'd been slapped in the face. "Rishid? . . ." he whispered, not knowing why his brother was treating him so coldly.  
  
Now Rishid stood, pushing both Ishizu and Marik aside. "I said LEAVE ME ALONE!!" With that he reached down and snatched the dust from the floor, holding it in the air in his fist. "Once the creature's powers have a new host, you will never stand a chance!"  
  
Marik's mouth dropped open. After a moment he recovered from the shock and narrowed his eyes angrily. "You're not Rishid!!" he declared.  
  
Rishid laughed maniacally, raising the dust to pour into the wound.  
  
"Stop this madness!" Ishizu ordered, grabbing the man's wrist.  
  
"Rishid, I know you're in there," Marik said, stepping in front of him. "Don't let whoever is possessing you keep control!"  
  
"Rishid," the man repeated. "He can't hear you. But I can, and your pleas mean nothing to me!" With that he again pushed Ishizu aside and lunged at Marik, punching him in the stomach.  
  
"Stop it, whoever you are!" Ishizu yelled. "Marik has been through enough today. And your taking over our brother is absolutely atrocious and wicked!"  
  
"I'm alright, sister," Marik said with a weak smile, straightening up. Slowly he removed his hands from over his waist, revealing a nasty red mark.  
  
"Well, fight me!" the stranger taunted.  
  
Marik glared. "I'd be happy to fight you . . . but as long as you are in Rishid's body, I cannot, for I will not hurt him."  
  
His reply was an evil sneer. "Then it seems I can hurt you as much as I want." He was about to lunge again when he abruptly collapsed to his knees, shaking once more.  
  
Marik and Ishizu looked at him hopefully. "Rishid?"  
  
The Egyptian man gazed at them, his golden eyes now full of kindness and sorrow. "I do not . . . wish to harm you," he whispered. "I have never wanted that. . . ." He looked away. "I . . . don't know what is happening to me. . . . It's something terrible and . . . and evil. . . ."  
  
Instantly Marik embraced him. "It's alright, Rishid," he soothed. "You're fighting it. And you will win!"  
  
Rishid returned the hug with one arm and then stood up, going to the window and flinging the dust into the wind. He narrowed his eyes, watching it be carried away to the sky, then placed a hand to his forehead and winced as he felt the evil tearing at his defenses again.  
  
Marik and Ishizu came over to him, laying their hands on his shoulders. They knew that their brother would overcome this.  
  
"You will not gain control again," Rishid vowed then, forcing it from the recesses of his mind. Feeling the full magnitude of the pain of his wound again, the man raised his arm and stared blankly at the slashes.  
  
"Let's get that taken care of," Marik said gently, helping Rishid to the hallway where the First Aid Kits were kept.  
  
****  
  
Joey sighed, unlocking the door of his home and going in. It had been such a crazy night. . . . And nothing was nowhere near solved yet. . . .  
  
Slowly he walked into the bathroom and splashed water on his face. I wonder how Bakura's doing, he thought to himself. They had tried to call the British boy and give him a ride home, but JP had told them that Bakura and his "brother" had already left for home after making sure that no one else had been hurt by the Frankenstein.  
  
"So now we have a psycho monster from a book going around stabbing people," Joey sarcastically said aloud. "And if he thinks Bakura can identify him, then that poor guy's in big trouble."  
  
He turned away from the sink and went out into the hall, keeping quiet as he passed by Serenity's room. His alcoholic father had finally just up and left a while back and Joey had been living by himself for a while before his mother had decided that she and Serenity would move in with him. The siblings were overjoyed to finally be together again, needless to say.  
  
"Joey?!"  
  
The boy froze. He had thought Serenity was asleep, but apparently she wasn't.  
  
"Hey, sis," he smiled now as he turned to greet her.  
  
"Joey, where have you been?!" Serenity cried. "It's nearly four in the morning!!" She looked down, a tear slipping from her eye. "I was so worried!!"  
  
Joey smiled softly, pulling his sister close. "I went to the radio station like I said I was going to," he told her.  
  
"But you weren't there that whole time, were you?" Serenity replied softly, knowing when her brother wasn't telling her everything.  
  
Joey sighed. "No," he admitted.  
  
"There was trouble, wasn't there." It wasn't a question.  
  
Joey was silent for a long time, but he knew he couldn't lie to his sister. "Yeah."  
  
"Joey, I hate to see you being in so much danger all the time!" Serenity cried. "Why do you always want to solve these mysteries? You never did give me a straight answer. Why do you always let yourself be put in danger?"  
  
Joey just gazed at her for a long time. How would he ever deal with things if Serenity got hurt the way the Kaibas and the Ishtars always seemed to? How would *she* deal with it if he, Joey, was hurt?  
  
He thought hard about all the mysteries they had solved . . . all the criminals they had brought to justice . . . all the times someone had nearly died. . . . Was it worth it? Was it worth all the pain? At this point, he still didn't know.  
  
"I can't answer, sis," he said at last. "I wish I knew, but I don't."  
  
Serenity hugged him tightly. "Joey? Just promise me two things. First . . . promise me that . . . you'll always let me come with you on your cases. And second," she hurried on before Joey could protest, "promise me you'll never leave me. Please promise me that!"  
  
Joey stared at her, not knowing what to say. How could he promise those things? How could he allow Serenity to risk her own safety? And how could he promise that he wouldn't leave her, when he never knew from day to day if someone would die on their cases? But . . . how could he not? "I'll promise, Serenity," he said finally, "but only on one condition."  
  
She looked up with him with her hazel eyes. "And what's that, big brother?"  
  
Joey had to smile slightly at her words, remembering the past. "Promise me that *you'll* never leave," he said firmly. "Never again!"  
  
More tears fell from Serenity's eyes as she continued to hug her brother. "Of course I promise," she choked out. "Of course I do!!"  
  
****  
  
Bakura looked around nervously as he walked down the dark streets, making sure to keep close to his Yami. "Maybe we should have waited for the others," he said quaveringly. "Yugi said they'd come back for us. . . ."  
  
Yami Bakura grunted. "Knowing them, they're probably still in the canyons! Besides, you'll be perfectly safe."  
  
A knife flew overhead and they both ducked down to the sidewalk instantly.  
  
"Oh my!" Bakura exclaimed as he heard the knife thunk into a tree. "Yami, someone's after us!!" He knew it was probably the Frankenstein person. The police had been very concerned when Bakura had told them about what he had seen. The scar matched the description of a known mercenary that they had been after for months.  
  
Yami Bakura growled. "I know that, you dolt!! Knives don't fly around by themselves!" Angrily he stood up and pulled the knife out of the tree, suddenly deciding to adopt Bakura's voice as he waved it above his head. "I will throw this back at you the minute I see you!" he growled. "And unlike you, I have perfect aim!"  
  
Bakura winced, hearing his voice coming out of his Yami's mouth. He couldn't stand to have the thief there threatening someone and pretending to be him while doing so, even after what the person had just tried to do. "Yami!!" he cried.  
  
"Hush!" Yami Bakura retorted irritably. "If they think I'm you, you'll be much safer!"  
  
Oreo curled around the tomb raider's legs, hissing at someone unseen.  
  
Whoever had thrown the knife did not attempt to make himself known, at least not as far as Bakura could tell, and eventually Yami Bakura simply threw the weapon in disgust, aiming for a bush in which he'd heard a rustling. Instantly there was a yelp of pain and Bakura's eyes went wide.  
  
"What have you done??!!" he screamed at his Yami as he was pulled up and shoved forward.  
  
"I've just saved your sorry skin," Yami Bakura grunted. "That person was raising an automatic! Now go!!"  
  
Bakura struggled as his Yami pushed him along. "But Yami, you've hurt someone!!" he wailed.  
  
"So? He was going to kill you. He might as well get some of it back," Yami Bakura retorted.  
  
"Yami, we can't leave him there without seeing if he needs help!" Bakura insisted, trying to break away.  
  
Several bullets landed by his feet.  
  
"Does that answer your question?!" Yami Bakura snarled. "He's obviously well enough to use his gun, and he wants you dead!! Now MOVE!!" Without waiting to hear what Bakura would say next, Yami Bakura picked him up and dashed around the corner, Oreo scampering past at his heels.  
  
****  
  
Téa tossed around in bed, unable to sleep without having the same strange dream over and over again. There was fire . . . so much fire everywhere. . . . She wandered through it, trying to find her way out, but every possible way was blocked.  
  
"Téa!" she heard a familiar voice scream. "Téa, help me!!"  
  
She looked around frantically, trying to place whose voice it was. It changed every time her name was called. First it was Yugi, then Marik, then Bakura. . . . One by one, each of her friends called desperately for her, but she could never find them in the flames, no matter how hard she tried.  
  
Instantly her eyes flew open and she sat up in bed, breathing heavily. What can it mean?! she cried out silently.  
  
Groaning, she climbed off the bed and went over to the answering machine, which was blinking. She hadn't meant to fall asleep, even though she was so exhausted. Bakura had called her a few minutes ago and left a message on the answering machine that he had returned home safely. But he sounded so shaken, Téa thought as she listened to his voice now. What if he was in some terrible danger?  
  
****  
  
Bakura was not in for a pleasant surprise when he awoke the next morning. Yami Bakura was downstairs, examining something out the kitchen window and looking annoyed.  
  
"Yami, what is it?" Bakura exclaimed.  
  
"It seems," the thief replied, "that someone has already tracked you." With that he pointed out the window to where a bloody knife was stuck in a tree.  
  
"OH!!" Bakura cried, his eyes wide. His Yami had tried to lead their pursuer on a wild goose chase the previous night, but it seemed it hadn't done a mite of good.  
  
"They want you, Bakura," Yami Bakura muttered. "Dead or alive, they want you. But especially dead." 


	9. Mistaken Identities

Notes: Nothing is as it seems! XD! Keep it in mind! Yes!  
  
  
  
  
  
Later on, after everyone had managed to get some good sleep, they all met at the Game Shop to discuss things.  
  
"Alright, let's review the case," Joey said, unwrapping a Tootsie Roll absentmindedly. "Someone started a fire at the KETY studios."  
  
"Then we find out a vicious dog has been roaming through the building," Mokuba continued with a shudder.  
  
"And Marik gets abducted on an airplane and nearly killed," Seto grunted, crossing his arms. He wasn't happy in the least to be involved in this case, but since KaibaCorp owned the KETY studios, he knew he had to get to the bottom of things.  
  
"Where is Marik, anyway?" Téa asked in concern.  
  
"Probably sleeping in," Tristan shrugged. "Hey, he sure deserves it."  
  
"No," the familiar odd but endearing voice spoke up. "I'm right here." Marik stood in the doorway to Yugi's living room, Ishizu and Rishid standing beside him.  
  
"Marik!" Mokuba cried happily.  
  
"Are you feeling better?" Yugi asked, surprised to see him up and around already.  
  
"Quite," Marik replied, coming in and sitting on the couch. He blinked sleepily and Ishizu chuckled.  
  
"He just woke up a while ago, actually," the dark-haired woman said, patting her brother's arm. She and Rishid both sat down as well. "To tell the truth, our night was not uneventful after we returned home." Quickly Ishizu told the others of what had happened to Rishid, much to their shock.  
  
"What sort of creature was it?!" Yugi gasped.  
  
Rishid rubbed his arm. "I do not know," he replied. "I have never seen anything like it."  
  
"Okay," Joey groaned, "so now we gotta add creepy mind-controlling creatures to our list of what's been happening?!"  
  
"Not only that," Yami Bakura spoke up from the doorway now, "but you can add the attempted murder of my foolish descendant."  
  
"Oh, Yami, it really wasn't that bad," Bakura protested, not wanting to worry everyone.  
  
"Bakura, what happened?!" Téa exclaimed. "You sounded so rattled on that message you put on my answering machine! I tried to call you back, but the line kept being busy."  
  
Bakura blinked in confusion. "I can't imagine what would have been wrong," he said. "I didn't even use the phone last night after I called you, Téa! You were the last one I called!"  
  
"That's weird," Tristan declared.  
  
"Okay," Joey said impatiently, wanting to make the list of everything that had gone wrong so far, "so then there's that freaky mechanical hand and voice in the canyons, and the snake pit I fell in! And the Frankenstein goin' around stabbing people. . . ."  
  
"By the way, any word on how Bruce is doing?" Téa broke in.  
  
"I haven't heard anything," Bakura said worriedly. "I did try to call the hospital and find out, but they refused to tell me!"  
  
"I'll see if JP knows," Yugi decided.  
  
Joey nodded, then glanced over at Rishid. "You okay, man?" he asked, noticing how the Egyptian had been rubbing at his arm.  
  
"Yes," Rishid replied, grimacing at the pain.  
  
Abruptly Seto's cell phone rang, startling everyone out of their thoughts. "Kaiba," the businessman said coldly, picking it up. He listened in silence for a moment, his eyes narrowing. "Oh it did, huh?" he said then.  
  
"What is it, big brother?!" Mokuba cried.  
  
After another minute or two, Seto hung up the phone and leaned back. "Well," he announced, "it seems that our dog has escaped from custody."  
  
"Oh no!" Téa moaned.  
  
"How did it get free?" Yugi wanted to know.  
  
"Apparently it shredded the cage it was in and then bit the person guarding it," Seto replied. "They're treating the person for rabies, but he doesn't seem to have the signs of it. He is behaving rather oddly, though."  
  
"How oddly?" Bakura exclaimed.  
  
"He's become very restless and he seems to be growing a beard all of a sudden," Seto told him.  
  
"What the heck?!" Joey burst out. "It must be a werewolf!!"  
  
"Don't be a moron," Seto said irritably.  
  
"Okay, guys, let's not argue," Yugi said hurriedly as he saw Joey about to retort. "We need to figure out our next course of action!"  
  
Bakura was staring out the window at something down below. "Oh my," he uttered, his brown eyes widening.  
  
"What is it?" Marik asked, seeing the other boy's concerned look.  
  
"That man," Bakura said, pointing down at a man in a trenchcoat and sunglasses leaning against a lamppost. "I know I saw him behind my Yami and I when we were coming here!"  
  
"You were followed here?" Rishid narrowed his eyes in concern.  
  
Yami Bakura went over to the window as well and looked out. "Stupid mortal," he muttered. "Perhaps I should go show him a thing or two."  
  
"No, Yami, don't!" Bakura yelped, grabbing the thief's arm. "What if he's innocent?! He could have just been heading in the same direction as we were!"  
  
"Then why is he continuing to stand outside?" Yami Bakura grunted.  
  
"He could be meeting someone," Bakura insisted.  
  
After a moment the man looked around and then walked on down the street, entering a cab that pulled up to the curb.  
  
"Well, that was definitely weird," Téa declared.  
  
"Perhaps that person truly was innocent, but the knife incident this morning definitely happened for the sole purpose of letting you know that they are on to you," Yami Bakura growled.  
  
"What knife incident?!" Yugi gasped. "Did something else happen?!"  
  
Bakura looked away. He hadn't told anyone what had happened at all, but JP had informed them of the first knife that had been thrown. Now he found his Yami relating the other disasters to them. The thief added something that Bakura hadn't heard about—a threat that had come by telephone, warning Bakura that he would short-circuit if he tried to do his radio show again.  
  
"What on earth does it mean?!" Bakura gasped.  
  
"It means that someone is afraid you're going to blab things on the air and they plan to electrocute you if you attempt it," Yami Bakura growled.  
  
Bakura's eyes widened in shock. "Oh, if only we hadn't gotten into this mess!" he wailed.  
  
"This is awful!" Yugi said, shaking his head in disbelief.  
  
"There's only one thing to do!" Tristan cried, standing up. "You've gotta have a decoy, Bakura!"  
  
The British boy stared. "What on earth do you mean, Tristan?!" he exclaimed.  
  
"Just think about it," Tristan cried. "If you had a decoy, maybe he could corner the bad guys if they tried to attack him!"  
  
"Yes, or else he'd get a body full of buckshot!!" Bakura retorted, shaking his head firmly. "No decoys, Tristan. This is my problem. I won't endanger someone else!"  
  
Tristan sighed. "Alright, never mind. It was just an idea." He couldn't have known the disaster that would happen later on.  
  
****  
  
In spite of everyone's protests, Bakura insisted on going to the radio station that night. "If I don't go, I'll look like a coward," he declared.  
  
"If you don't go, you won't be injured," Yami Bakura grunted angrily.  
  
"I'm not going to hide from my enemies," Bakura declared. "I'm going to confront the person who stabbed Bruce if he tries to come after me again. I want to find out what's going on!"  
  
Nothing anyone could say managed to persuade the boy otherwise, and so that evening they all set out for the KETY studio.  
  
"Sure is dark tonight," Joey said uncomfortably as they exited Seto's limo and walked to the back door under the extremely cloudy sky. "Shouldn't the moon be out?"  
  
"It's out, just behind the clouds," Bakura replied, opening the door. "It's quite big and bright tonight. I saw it a few minutes ago out the limo window."  
  
"JP knows we're coming, doesn't he?" Téa asked as they ventured down the cheerily-lit hallway.  
  
Yugi nodded. "And he knew we wanted to lay low during the day, so he didn't tell anyone. He's spread the word that he's going to host the Mystery Hour tonight to make certain that no one will think Bakura will be here."  
  
Without warning the lights went off, just as they had the previous night right before Bruce had been stabbed.  
  
"Hey!!" Joey yelped, clanking into Seto and knocking them both to the floor. "What gives??!"  
  
Before anyone could do anything, gunshots rang out loudly, peppering the walls to their sides. Growling could also be heard, a sound most likely brought on by the recently escaped dog.  
  
"McGruff is in the house," Tristan muttered.  
  
"Take cover, everyone!!" Yugi screamed, dropping to the floor. The others immediately followed, but someone obviously didn't make it soon enough. A scream of agony rang through the halls, followed by the dog's howls.  
  
"It bit someone!!" Téa shrieked.  
  
"Hey!!" Tristan yelled. "Who was bit?"   
  
No one answered.  
  
"Call off your beast!!" Rishid yelled, hearing someone step down near where he was laying.  
  
An evil laugh echoed above him. "He is not mine," was the answer. "He is a wild werewolf. And it seems that now your young British friend has been infected. Within the hour, he will join the other werewolves roaming through the city and there is nothing you can do to stop it!"  
  
"Bakura's been bitten?!" Yugi cried.  
  
"You shouldn't have come," the man cackled and then suddenly was gone.  
  
Slowly the lights came on again, revealing everyone sprawled in various positions on the floor and all being stunned at these developments.  
  
"Here's Bakura over here!!" Tristan yelled, pointing to the poor boy laying still on the floor.  
  
"Oh!" Téa gasped, hurrying over. "Bakura!!"  
  
To everyone's shock, the boy sat up and looked around, positively baffled. It was obvious there wasn't a scratch on him. "What happened?" he murmured.  
  
"Man, how about telling us?!" Joey shot back. "That crazy guy said you'd been bitten by a werewolf!!"  
  
"Werewolf?!" Bakura gave Joey a funny look. "Why, nothing of the sort has happened to me!"  
  
"But . . . something happened to someone," Ishizu whispered, pointing to a pool of blood on the floor. "Someone was harmed." Her face drained of color. "And . . . I do not see Marik."  
  
Rishid pulled himself up shakily, gazing at the blood in horror. "No," the poor man sobbed, shaking his head. "NO!!!"  
  
"Marik??!!" Mokuba screamed, getting up and looking around frantically.  
  
"He's not here," Seto said grimly.  
  
"We've gotta find him!!" Mokuba declared. "He couldn't have gone far!!"  
  
"Wait a minute!!" Joey burst out. "That guy who was here seemed convinced it was Bakura who'd been hurt. Does that mean he mistook Marik for Bakura in the darkness?!"  
  
"It seems so," Yugi said worriedly. "And of course Marik won't turn into a werewolf, but he's probably hurt bad, wherever they've taken him!!"  
  
"Oh!!" Bakura wailed. "This is my fault!! I should have stayed home. I never meant for someone else to get hurt!! I never wanted that!!!" Tears filled his soft eyes and he ran to the doorway, looking about for any sign of his friend. "If . . . if Marik's . . . oh, I just can't forgive myself!!"  
  
For ages the group went about the area, screaming for Marik, but all in vain. To their shock, they found that they also seemed to be the only ones in the building.  
  
"JP was the only one who knew we were coming," Tristan said slowly. "What if he turned against us?!"  
  
"Now don't start thinking like that!" Yugi scolded.  
  
A low growl suddenly met their ears.  
  
"That wasn't your stomach, was it?" Téa said to Joey.  
  
"No," the Brooklyn boy replied, tensing up. "But heck, I wish it was!"  
  
In the next moment, everyone gasped as a vicious, bloodthirsty wolf sprang from the shadows directly at them.  
  
"Whoa!" Tristan cried in horror. "Please don't tell me that's a werewolf!!"  
  
Joey's eyes widened as a slight jangling sound was heard. When he took a closer look at the wolf, he discovered to his utter shock that Marik's earrings were affixed in the creature's ears!  
  
"Holy Mackerel!" he shouted. "The wolf!! It . . . it must be a werewolf, alright, and not only that, it's . . . it's Marik!!!" 


	10. Vanishing Acts

Notes: Hey guys, remember that I said nothing is as it seems! XD!!  
  
  
  
  
  
"Marik?!" Téa repeated with a scream, fighting the beast back with a chair.  
  
"Joseph, your imagination is running away with you," Rishid scolded, grabbing the wolf by the tail and pulling it away from Téa. "People do not turn into wolves!!"  
  
"But it's wearing your brother's earrings!!" Joey retorted.  
  
Rishid cried out in pain as the wolf dug its sharp claws into his arm. "It is not Marik, I tell you!!" he roared. "That demon must have stolen my brother's earrings and placed them on this wolf!!"  
  
Tristan grabbed a nearby whip hanging on a hook and cracked it over the wolf's back. "Well, whoever or whatever it is, it's gonna be sorry it messed with us," he vowed coldly.  
  
Now the wolf turned to face him, taking the whip in its teeth and throwing it aside. Abruptly it sprang into the air and Tristan only barely got out of the way in time, knocking a stack of empty boxes over in the process.  
  
"Stay away from my friends!!" Mokuba screamed, jumping on the creature's back and pulling its fur. He didn't believe for one minute that it was Marik.  
  
"MOKUBA!!"  
  
Seto ran forward, snatching his brother away before the wolf could strike. Once they were safely away, he glared daggers at the younger boy.  
  
"What were you thinking?!" the CEO snapped.  
  
"I couldn't let it hurt anyone!" Mokuba retorted. "And I know it's not Marik!! I've just gotta prove it!!"  
  
Joey was now being backed up against the wall. "H-hey, come on, Marik," he gulped. "Don't you remember us??!!"  
  
"Wheeler, stop being an idiot," Seto muttered.  
  
Just as the beast lunged for Joey, he ducked and it slammed into the wall instead. With a howl of pain it fell to the floor and lay still.  
  
"Is it dead?" Téa asked shakily.  
  
"I doubt it," Tristan replied.  
  
Tristan was only too right. Within another moment the wolf was back on its feet, charging at the nearest available target—Ishizu. Soon it had her helplessly pinned to the floor, its horrible claws piercing her flesh. It howled again, preparing to move in for the kill. The others ran forward, but they knew they'd never get to Ishizu in time.  
  
Ishizu gazed up at her certain death, unafraid from the outside but inwardly terrified. As the beast lowered its jaws the woman screamed, trying to desperately to shove it aside.  
  
Abruptly a familiar blur practically flew in through the door, the Millennium Rod bared in his tan-skinned hand. "Leave my sister alone!!!" Marik screamed, plunging the dagger right through the creature's back.  
  
"MARIK!!!" everyone shouted in astonishment. Where had he come from?!  
  
Now the wolf turned to face its assailant, snarling and baring its ugly teeth. Marik gazed at it with steely eyes, refusing to back down.  
  
"Brother, be careful!!" Ishizu pleaded as Rishid pulled her out of the way.  
  
The wolf leaped into the air, intending to pin Marik to the floor as it had done with Ishizu. Before it had the chance, Marik blasted it with the Rod and sent it crashing back to the floor. This time it was very much unconscious, if not dead.  
  
Quickly Marik replaced the Rod in his belt and ran to his siblings, wanting to make certain they were alright. Instantly he was embraced by them both as they whispered their words of gratitude for his help and their relief that he was safe. Mokuba ran over as well, declaring that he'd known all along that his friend wasn't a werewolf.  
  
Joey blinked in confusion, realizing how foolish he was going to look. "So, uh, Marik, if you weren't the wolf—which I can see you aren't—WHERE THE HECK DID YOU GO??!!" he yelled. "DO YOU KNOW HOW WORRIED WE ALL WERE??!!"  
  
"Calm down, Joey," Yugi said.  
  
Marik turned to face Joey, an amused expression adorning his features. "You thought I was the wolf?" he said incredulously.  
  
Immediately Joey went pink. "Well, uh, that is . . ."  
  
Marik knelt down and removed his earrings from the wolf's lobes. "Apparently that's what someone wanted you to think," he remarked, straightening up. "But no . . . I wasn't the wolf." He continued to smile in amusement as he once again affixed the earrings on himself, but then sobered. "I was laying senseless outside in a van. When I came to I found that my earrings were missing. Whoever hit me over the head found out that I wasn't Bakura and then decided to take advantage of it."  
  
Joey scratched his head. "Eh, I knew all along that you weren't the wolf," he objected.  
  
Marik crossed his arms and gave Joey a sideways glance. "Really."  
  
"Really!" Joey insisted, trying desperately to save face.  
  
Marik started to laugh. As he did so, however, he leaned against the wall and seemed to be trying to conceal a wound in his shoulder.  
  
Rishid came over to him now, eyeing the injury with concern. "How did you sustain that?" he wanted to know.  
  
Marik glanced at it and sighed. "Well, I can assure you that it's not a wolf bite," he said wryly. "The truth of the matter is, I wasn't alone when I woke up in the van. Someone else was in there, disguised as the Wolfman. He took a nearby knife and tried to use me for their target practice. I dodged, but it still grazed my arm."  
  
"This happened in the van?" Ishizu demanded, seeming intensely interested in that particular aspect. Gently she dabbed at the wound with a scarf.  
  
"If it did, then whose blood is that?!" Mokuba exclaimed, turning to point to the pool of blood that had been on the floor.  
  
"What blood?" Marik also turned to look, but he found nothing.  
  
"It's gone!" Téa cried.  
  
"Blood could not vanish just like that," Ishizu said, narrowing her eyes. "Someone would have had to have come and cleaned it up."  
  
"And look!" Tristan burst out. "The dog . . . wolf . . . whatever it is . . . it's gone too!!!"  
  
"But we are the only ones here," Rishid put in, feeling disturbed. "No one could have come without us seeing them!"  
  
"What happened to the man in the vehicle with you, Marik?" Ishizu asked now, becoming very uneasy with all of these happenings.  
  
Marik smiled. "I left him on the floor, out cold. I'd decided to give him some of his own medicine." He glanced around. "It's possible that someone else may be loose here in the station. We're going to have to proceed cautiously." He was actually afraid that perhaps everyone who may have been there before had been killed, but he didn't say so aloud because he didn't want to disturb poor Bakura, who had expressed his thankfulness over and over again that Marik was alright but was very sad that that the Egyptian boy had been mistaken for him.  
  
Yugi led them down the hall, where they checked in every room and found it empty. "Hello?" the violet-eyed boy called now. "Is anyone here? JP? Mandy?"  
  
A strong, burly figure stepped in front of him. "You guys again!" Phil Court growled in irritation.  
  
"Mr. Court!" Yugi exclaimed, ignoring the rude greeting. "Are you alright? We've had a terrible experience in the back hallway!"  
  
"No one uses the back hallway," Phil snapped. "It was hit pretty bad during those heavy rainstorms we had a while back and it still hasn't been repaired."  
  
"Oh, I see," Yugi said thoughtfully.  
  
"Is that why it's deserted?!" Joey broke in.  
  
Phil gave a curt nod. "Why were you guys coming in the back?" he demanded.  
  
"We were trying to be less visible," Bakura said sadly, "but it really didn't work out that way." He couldn't help feeling guilty that someone else had been hurt, no matter how minor, because they had been thought to have been him.  
  
"We were in there for ages, being attacked with gunfire and that terrible dog that escaped from the pound!" Téa said indignantly. "We kept calling for help, but no one ever came!"  
  
"I never heard anything," Phil grunted, "and I've been here since six this evening." He looked them over. "None of you look the worse for wear."  
  
"My brother was harmed," Ishizu replied, "and someone was attempting to make us believe that he had been bitten by a werewolf by placing his earrings on that beast."  
  
Phil just shook his head and started to walk away.  
  
"Hey! What's going on?!" JP called, coming out of a nearby recording studio.  
  
"Oh wow! It's great to see you, man!!" Joey declared, grinning in relief. "We've been talkin' to Johnny Sunshine here and he says he didn't even hear the gunfire or the screams or anything!!"  
  
JP gave him a concerned look. "Were you and your friends in trouble?" he asked now.  
  
"Yes," Seto answered for him. "The security around here is terrible. That rabid beast attacked us again."  
  
"The dog?!" JP cried. "But . . . why would it come back here?!"  
  
"It was a wolf, and that's just another of the mysteries here," Téa said, shaking her head. "And what's even worse, now it's gone again!" Quickly she explained how Marik had fought with it and then left it on the floor. "We were just talking to Marik to find out what had happened to him, and then when we looked again, the wolf wasn't there!"  
  
JP narrowed his eyes. "This is bad. I wish I knew why this was happening!"  
  
"Hey," Joey spoke up, "remember your old theory about Phil bein' a werewolf?" He ignored the looks everyone immediately gave him. "What if he was the guy who attacked us?! Then he could've started to change back to himself while we were talkin' to Marik and snuck away!"  
  
JP sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I don't know," he replied. "Maybe Phil's mixed up in something crooked and he's behind this whole dog/wolf thing, but he isn't actually a werewolf. As I said before, I really don't believe in those." He headed back in the direction the group had come from. "Why don't I go with you back to where you were and we can look for any clues that might have been left behind?"  
  
"Okay," Yugi said slowly. "Then there's also the matter of that van Marik was being held hostage in."  
  
"It's gone too," Marik sighed. "I looked out the window before we came looking for anyone."  
  
"MAN!! Did they pour disappearing ink on everything or somethin'?!" Joey screamed in frustration.  
  
"You know, that's actually a good theory for the vanishing blood," Yami Yugi said, suddenly coming out of the Puzzle.  
  
When they arrived back in the deserted hallway, they found that there were no indications that anything out of the ordinary had happened. Even the bullet holes left by the automatic weapon were gone.  
  
"This doesn't even make sense," Rishid growled in irritation. "There is no logical way that all of this could disappear."  
  
"Unless . . ." Bakura paused now, a new thought coming to him. "What if it was all in our minds?"  
  
Everyone turned to stare at him. "What do you mean, Bakura?" Téa asked finally.  
  
Bakura blushed, seeing everyone looking at him strangely. "I only mean that what if we were, perhaps, put under group hypnosis and made to believe that we were being shot at and that there was a dog attacking?" He sighed again. "Of course . . . I know that doesn't explain how the second dog—the wolf—was here and then vanished, because we all know for a fact that it truly was here and not a hallucination." He nodded to Marik, who nodded back firmly. The wolf had absolutely been there.  
  
"Nothing makes sense on this case!!" Joey screamed in frustration.  
  
"Calm down, Joey," Yami Yugi said now. "We must keep cool heads in order to make sense of any of it."  
  
"Easy for you to say," Joey grumbled.  
  
"There is also the matter of why Marik was abducted," Rishid said now. "Why would an aircraft be in the field behind the station?"  
  
JP just looked perplexed. "I never heard of such a thing," he declared. "There was never an airplane there before."  
  
With nothing to see there, everyone eventually gave up and went back into the main part of the building.  
  
"How is Bruce doing?" Bakura asked. "I tried to find out, but the hospital refused to tell me anything!"  
  
"Well, they won't tell me anything either," JP replied. "These new policies and all. I know they're good in some cases, but in ours it's just frustrating!" He sighed. "I've been trying to get in touch with Bruce's sister up in Washington, but so far I haven't had any luck."  
  
"I didn't know Bruce has a sister," Yugi said with interest. "What does she do?"  
  
"She's a radio personality," JP smiled.  
  
"A real radio family, eh?" Joey commented.  
  
"You could say that," JP nodded, opening the door to his studio. "By the way, Bakura, where's your Yami?"  
  
"Why, I don't know!" Bakura gasped, his eyes wide.  
  
JP narrowed his eyes and gestured inside the room. "Well, look no further."  
  
Yami Bakura looked up from where he sitting in a chair with a headset. Oreo was next to him, purring.  
  
"Yami, have you been on the air again??!!" Bakura gasped.  
  
"I've been threatening whoever's after you that they had best not try to hide from me, because I shall find them and steal their soul," Yami Bakura sneered.  
  
"Oh Yami . . ." Bakura sank down into the soft couch, rubbing his eyes.  
  
Abruptly the telephone rang and JP snapped it up. "Hello? . . . Yes, this is JP Palmer. . . . Oh! You're Grace von Wilkenson?" He listened for a moment, his eyes widening.  
  
"It must be Bruce's sister!" Téa realized.  
  
"What does she say, man?!" Joey asked, coming over closer.  
  
JP put his hand over the phone long enough to answer, "Nothing good. Bruce has disappeared!"  
  
  
  
  
  
Other note: Whee. More trouble for our friends! @@ Oh well. At least Marik isn't a werewolf XD I swear, the very thought gives me chills. I would never do such an abominable thing to him! ^__~ 


	11. Dracula

"Disappeared?!" Bakura echoed in horror. "How? Why? When?!"  
  
There was another pause as JP listened to Grace speaking, and then once again he placed his hand over the phone. "She says she just found out about what happened to him and tried to call the hospital. They told her that he had been in critical condition and was in the ICU. Somehow, someone managed to get in there and then apparently abducted him!"  
  
"That's atrocious!" Yugi declared.  
  
"Man, you're not even safe at the hospital!" Joey cried. "What are they sayin' about this?"  
  
JP shook his head. "They refuse to comment to the press, but they have told Grace that they're very sorry this happened and that they'll do everything they can to get to the bottom of it."  
  
"How long ago did it happen?!" Téa asked now.  
  
"They don't know for certain," JP answered gravely. "Anywhere in the last two hours."  
  
"Then they could be almost anywhere in the state by now!" Joey groaned. "Man, who the heck would wanna kidnap Bruce??! And come to think of it, why'd someone wanna stab him in the first place??!"  
  
"Perhaps he's been innocent all along but he knows who the culprits are," Marik suggested after a long stretch of silence. "What if they've been blackmailing him and causing the incidents here at the station and he hasn't known what to do?"  
  
"I think you may be on to something, my brother," Ishizu said solemnly. "Perhaps it all has something to do with the aircraft that was in the field."  
  
Rishid nodded. "And then perhaps Bruce decided to go to the police about all of this and that's when the criminal decided that he must be silenced." He narrowed his eyes. "When he didn't die from the stabbing, they then abducted him from the hospital."  
  
"In other words, the guy could be dead right now!" Joey burst out.  
  
"Joey, don't say such things!" Bakura scolded.  
  
"Hey, I'm only speakin' the very possible truth!" the Brooklyn boy retorted.  
  
"Well, it's depressing and we shouldn't think like that," Bakura replied firmly. "We have to concentrate on the hope that Bruce is still alive and that we can find him!"  
  
"What's all this talk about Bruce?"  
  
Everyone looked up as Bernard and Elsa peered in the doorway.  
  
"Oh great," Tristan sighed. "Just what we need now when we're trying to find Bruce. The two biggest Bruce haters in existence!"  
  
Elsa looked embarrassed. "It's not like we hate him!" she protested. "We just happen to think he's not a nice guy."  
  
"So why do you nuts think someone stabbed him, eh?" Joey demanded. "If you're so convinced he's the bad guy, how do you explain that?!"  
  
"Well . . . we can't," Bernard admitted. "But that doesn't mean we won't!"  
  
Téa sighed. "Give it a rest."  
  
"I know what we should do," Mokuba spoke up. "Look through Bruce's office and see if we can find anything! Maybe if he saw something crazy, there's something about it in the files!"  
  
"That's a good idea," Seto smiled. "We should also check his home, if possible, and speak with his sister."  
  
"I'm sure she'd be more than happy to speak to anyone willing to help find Bruce," JP said. "Unlike Lila and I, she and Bruce got along famously." He talked on the phone for a bit longer and then hung up. "She's already flying in from Washington," he announced then. "Once she gets here, she said she'd be more than happy to speak with you. Meantime, you'd better see what sorts of clues you can find." He was just as anxious to find Bruce as everyone else was, but he knew he would have to leave the mystery-solving up to Yugi and the others for the moment, as he had his show to do in order to make the public think everything was fine. They didn't know about Bruce's disappearance yet, and JP knew the station manager would want it to stay that way.  
  
"Well, I doubt we'll be able to find anything out from the hospital until Grace gets here," Yugi mused now, "so for now let's stick with Mokuba's plan!"  
  
The others agreed and soon found themselves in Bruce's office.  
  
"Haven't the police already been through here?" Téa sighed, glancing around at everything and especially at the stacks of overnight ratings reports on Bruce's desk. Everyone knew how obsessed the man was with ratings.  
  
"They have," Bakura said softly, "but they haven't looked through everything yet. They're certain, however, that what happened wasn't a random act, and this kidnapping proves it, I'm sure. Someone specifically wants Bruce for some reason!"  
  
"Could Phil Court be involved in all this?" Tristan wondered. "Man, I wouldn't mind seeing that guy behind bars."  
  
"He's most definitely unpleasant," Ishizu agreed, "but we have no proof that would link him to any of these crimes. Perhaps he is simply so heart-broken about Lila Palmer's actions and her arrest that he tries to convince himself she isn't the way she truly is. Or even . . . she may have had a better side that we know nothing of." The Egyptian woman sighed as she took out several files to sort through.  
  
"When it comes right down to it, we really don't have any suspects," Téa pointed out. "Only Phil Court."  
  
"Hey, he's plenty suspect enough for me," Joey snorted.  
  
Marik paused, seeming to be remembering something strange.  
  
"What is it, Marik?" Rishid asked, seeing the far-off look coming into his younger brother's eyes.  
  
"I'm afraid there may be two sets of criminals," Marik told him, snapping out of his trance-like state. "The pilot said someone had tampered with the engine of the plane."  
  
"Man, that's right," Joey sighed. "Just another angle to a mystery that already has enough of 'em!"  
  
To everyone's utter shock—especially Joey's—a familiar figure then came and stood in the doorway to Bruce's office, her hazel eyes full of hurt and bewilderment.  
  
"Joey!" Serenity cried. "Why didn't you tell me you were going to come here again?!"  
  
Joey didn't look pleased at his sister's sudden entrance. "Serenity!! I thought you were going to stay with Mom today and help her with that . . . whatever it was she needed help with!" He nearly dropped the file he was holding, as his hands were shaking so badly. In spite of what he'd told her the previous night, he absolutely did not want her involved in the mysteries for any reason and regretted promising her that she could be.  
  
"She has someone else to help her," Serenity replied in exasperation as she walked in. "You weren't going to tell me about this, were you, Joey."  
  
Joey looked extremely frustrated. He didn't want to deal with this now, and especially not in front of everyone else. "Sure I was!" he bluffed.  
  
"When?" Serenity pressed.  
  
The others wisely kept silent, sensing that this was not a time for any of them to interfere. Marik busied himself with going through another file while Seto—who really couldn't care less about the Wheelers' conversation—began searching through Bruce's computer and Mokuba rooted through the desk.  
  
"Later!" Joey finally exploded after searching for the right words. "I was gonna tell you later!!" He slammed the file onto the desk harshly and Seto grumbled as he found he'd hit the "L" key at least a dozen times in rapid succession. "Come on, Serenity, this really isn't the time to talk about this. Bruce is missing!" He knew exactly how lame his voice sounded. He was stalling for time and he knew it. And he was certain Serenity knew it.  
  
"You promised, Joey!" Serenity objected. "You promised you'd let me help out from now on!!" Tears started to form in her eyes but she refused to give in to them. She didn't enjoy the prospect of all the danger, but if her brother insisted on being involved, then she wanted to be as well.  
  
Joey took a deep breath. "Look, sis, I know I said that, but . . . but maybe . . . it wasn't such a good idea." He was about to go on and explain about Bakura's stalker, the disturbing werewolf incident, and Bruce's disappearance, but Serenity immediately spoke up again before he could—not that it would have made much of a difference if Joey had said what he was going to anyway.  
  
"Joey, I already know how dangerous it is!" Serenity burst out. "I know that, but I don't care!"  
  
"Well, I do!" Joey yelled, instantly regretting it when he heard how loud his voice was getting. But he couldn't stop himself now. "Look what's been happening to the others on this case—and on the Boston one! Kaiba and Marik nearly got sacrificed to some freaky monster, Bakura's bein' stalked, Marik almost died in an airplane crash. . . . And it just goes on and on! I don't want that for you, Serenity! I don't!!"  
  
"I don't want it for you, either!" Serenity wailed. "Why can't all of you just stop solving mysteries and leave it to the police?!" Without waiting for Joey or any of the others to answer her, the auburn-haired girl turned and fled back down the hall.  
  
"Serenity!" Joey yelled, running to the doorway. "Hey! Come back here!!"  
  
"Let her go," Seto said coldly, clicking on another document.  
  
"That's my sister!" Joey said indignantly. "No way am I gonna just 'let her go'! I can't have her bein' all upset and sad like this!" And with that he, too, left.  
  
Tristan was the first to break the ensuing silence. "Well, there's nothing weird in this file," he said, setting it down with finality. "And that's the last one!"  
  
No one answered him.  
  
Téa sank down into a nearby chair, an expression of sadness in her eyes. There had been many a time when she felt like saying exactly what Serenity just had. She didn't like solving the mysteries. It seemed that every time they tried, so many of them wound up hurt long before it was over. And they had found that they weren't so indestructible as they'd like to think. Shadi—the guardian of the Millennium Items!—had perished fighting at the Black Diamond Ranch. Ever since then, Téa had been especially uneasy—not that she hadn't been before. But she was so afraid that one day, perhaps very soon, she would lose someone very close to her. Yugi . . . Joey . . . Tristan . . . Seto . . . Bakura . . . Marik. . . . She didn't want to lose any of them! What was the answer? she wondered. What kept them solving the mysteries they encountered instead of simply leaving it up to the police? Why did they constantly put themselves in danger?  
  
Seto's voice interrupted her reverie then. "Hmm. This is interesting," the brown-haired boy mused.  
  
Instantly everyone gathered around. "What is it?" Mokuba wanted to know.  
  
"It's talking about how some recordings are very hard to get a hold of," Seto said, skimming over the document he'd uncovered. "Some people make copies of them and sell them on the black market to the highest bidder."  
  
"No way," Tristan said in disbelief, "people would pay that much money for one song?!" He pointed to an astronomical figure on the screen.  
  
"Some people would," Seto replied emotionlessly.  
  
"But . . . Bruce didn't do that to get rare songs for KETY, did he?" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
Seto read a bit further. "No, but it seems Phil Court did," he grunted.  
  
"And Bruce found out about it?" Téa put in.  
  
"It would seem so," Marik said, staring at the computer screen. "And it says here that often the shipments of recordings were brought in on a small, private airplane!" He narrowed his eyes.  
  
"It's the first real lead we've had," Yugi said. "We need to find Phil Court and have a little talk with him!"  
  
"Oh, you do, do you?"  
  
Again everyone looked up, but the voice this time was not familiar. To everyone's utter shock, a tall, pale figure in a cape began to materialize in front of them, grinning maniacally.  
  
"Oh my!" Bakura gasped, backing up and falling into a chair.  
  
"Count Dracula!" Tristan yelped, his eyes widening.  
  
"Who are you and what do you want?" Yugi cried bravely, not about to be intimidated by this vampyre, or whatever it was.  
  
It only laughed and moved forward. "Well, truth be told, I have been feeling a bit hungry today." The creature sneered, standing in front of Ishizu now.  
  
The Egyptian woman was not impressed. "I am afraid you will have to find your lunch elsewhere," she said calmly, raising a hand protectively to her neck.  
  
"Is this a real vampyre?" Tristan gulped, not sure he wanted to hear the answer.  
  
He never got one. In the next instant the room began to fill up with a horrible gas.  
  
"Sleepy," Mokuba mumbled. "I'm getting so sleepy. . . ."  
  
Seto held him close, his eyes narrowed as he tried to fight his way to the door. But his mind was suddenly so muddled that he couldn't remember which direction the door was in. Before long he and the others had all collapsed to the floor, unconscious! 


	12. Many Predicaments

Marik awoke slowly, an icy coldness blanketing him. He shivered noticeably, pulling himself up into a sitting position and hugging his knees. I'm in an ice cream freezer! he realized, taking in the endless towers of buckets of the frosty substance and the ice crystals all around him.  
  
Not only that, he found soon that he wasn't there alone. Rishid was laying on his side by the opposite wall of the freezer, still suffering the effects of the gas.  
  
Marik gasped, immediately running over and placing his hand on his brother's shoulder. He understood now—everyone had been separated so that they couldn't continue their investigations, and whoever had done this had apparently thought it would be hilarious to lock two Egyptians—who were used to the heat—in a freezer. Ishizu wasn't there, Marik could see. He prayed that she and the others would be safe—and that he and Rishid would be able to escape their prison.  
  
"Rishid!" he cried frantically, gently shaking him. "Rishid, wake up! Please, my brother. . . . We must find a way out of here! Wake up!!"  
  
Rishid groaned, moving his hand slightly and touching a bucket of strawberry ice cream. Instantly he withdrew his hand again and Marik took it between his own, shivering in his lavender shirt but ignoring the cold as much as he could.  
  
Presently Rishid regained full consciousness and Marik embraced him tightly, seeing that he didn't seem to be hurt. Rishid returned the hug, narrowing his eyes as it dawned on him exactly where they were.  
  
"We must find a way to escape," Rishid remarked, struggling to stand. Marik helped him and then looked for the door. Finding it, he tugged on the handle in frustration and then growled.  
  
"It's locked," he announced, having expected it. An ice crystal settled on his nose and he sneezed violently.  
  
"Bless you," Rishid said now, looking for a ventilation shaft or any possible way to escape.  
  
"There has to be something here," Marik muttered. He wondered idly if he could use the Rod to blast the door off, but then he found it frozen solid in a block of ice. That did not help his mood any.  
  
A low growling sound came to Rishid's attention then and the man froze, trying to determine what was in the freezer with them.  
  
"That doesn't sound like that wolf," Marik said, tensing. He had been going to break his Rod free from the ice, but now he froze as well.  
  
Rishid cried out in pain as a strong hand reached out and grabbed his arm in an unbearable way. "It's not," he tried to say as he struggled.  
  
"Rishid!!!" Marik screamed, running forward to help him.  
  
A grotesque creature came out from the shadows behind Rishid and sneered at them both, much to their shock.  
  
"It's the Frankenstein monster!" Marik yelled.  
  
"Only I'm afraid this one is not wearing a mask," Rishid replied grimly, having already tried to remove the "mask" and failed.  
  
"WHAT?!" Marik burst out in disbelief.  
  
Before Rishid could answer, Marik screamed as he was slashed across the shoulder by the Wolfman.  
  
****  
  
Ishizu stirred, feeling herself being shaken awake.  
  
"Come on, Ishizu!" Mokuba's voice pleaded. "Please!!"  
  
The Egyptian woman struggled to open her eyes. "Mokuba," she said in a slightly slurred, confused voice. "Where . . . where are we?"  
  
"In some big, old, creepy house!" Mokuba replied, relieved that he wouldn't have to be there alone.  
  
Ishizu pulled herself into a sitting position, wondering where her precious brothers were. "Apparently we were not wanted," she said dryly, referring to them all being gassed in Bruce's office.  
  
"It's just the two of us here," Mokuba told her, giving the woman a hug before standing up and crossing to the window. "We're on the top floor."  
  
Ishizu got up as well and walked over. "Perhaps Bruce is here somewhere, being held captive," she suggested. "We should look for him as well as the exit."  
  
"Okay," Mokuba agreed shakily as Ishizu took his hand and headed for the door. He just hoped that Seto, Marik, and the others were alright, wherever they were.  
  
****  
  
The first thing Seto saw when he awoke was an ear of corn laying beside him. He stared at it in disbelief and then groaned as a thought occurred to him. As he pulled himself up, he found his suspicions were confirmed. He was in a cornfield.  
  
The stalks near him rustled loudly, signaling the arrival of someone else. Seto tensed, preparing for a fight, but then relaxed as Téa emerged.  
  
"Kaiba!" she exclaimed, not having expected to find anyone else there.  
  
Seto grunted and stood, looking irritated. "Where's Mokuba?!" he demanded.  
  
"I . . . I haven't seen him," Téa admitted regretfully.  
  
That did not improve Seto's mood any. "I've gotta find him," he said coldly.  
  
"We have to find all of them," Téa declared, staying close beside him. "They're all missing!"  
  
Seto made no reply.  
  
****  
  
Joey had followed Serenity all the way down the hall before actually catching up to her. "Sis, come on! Wait up!" he pleaded.  
  
Serenity turned to face him, tears in her eyes. "Joey . . . let's just stop all this," she whispered. "Let's just stop it and go back to what we were when we were little. Do you remember, Joey? Do you remember how it was then? We didn't have a care in the world. It was just peaceful and quiet, and the evils that exist never bothered to intrude on us."  
  
Joey looked down guiltily, rubbing the back of his neck. "Serenity . . . I . . ."  
  
"I never even get to see you anymore, big brother," Serenity said sadly. "Hardly ever, even though now we finally get to live in the same house again. And . . . and . . . I'm just so scared that . . ." She turned to face the wall. "That you'll go off sometime and I'll never see you again."  
  
Joey didn't know what to say. Hollow promises wouldn't work. He knew he really couldn't promise to never leave her and know fervently that it would never happen.  
  
"You don't know how horrible it was for me in Boston," Serenity said now. "Seeing everyone go through so many horrible things. . . . Duke was beaten and left for dead in a crate! Yugi's Yami had to kill Bakura's when the zombie took him over! And then when Mr. Kaiba and Marik leaped off the ledge into the chasm, and Mokuba was screaming for them . . . I . . . I couldn't help it . . . I pictured myself there, screaming for you, Joey! I pictured you being hurt or . . . or worse. . . ." Joey knew she was crying.  
  
"I'm sorry, Serenity," he said, trying to reach out and touch her shoulder. Serenity flinched but then let him. "I never wanted you to get involved in this. I swear, if I'd known everything that would happen and how it would affect you . . ."  
  
Before he could say more, Serenity was in his arms, hugging him tightly as the tears fell.  
  
"I'm the one who's sorry, Joey," she interrupted in a melancholy tone. "I know I shouldn't be acting like this." She looked up at him. "Because I know the reason why you always get involved in these things. Deep down I know, and I know that I'd do the same thing if I was in your position." A soft smile appeared on the girl's features. "You do it because you want to help others."  
  
Joey blinked in surprise, but then he knew his sister was right. Everything they had gotten involved in, every horrible thing they had come through, it had all been to help someone else.  
  
"And," Serenity continued quietly, "I would never want you to not do things to help others. That's just part of who you are, Joey, and I wouldn't change it for anything." She sighed heavily. "I just worry about you so much. . . ."  
  
Joey held her close. "Yeah. . . . I worry about you, too, sis. That's why I . . . haven't been inviting you along. . . ." he admitted.  
  
"I know," Serenity said softly. "But let's do this together, alright, Joey? The way we did everything else together."  
  
Joey was silent for a time, struggling with his emotions. It was so hard for him to make such a decision. He had tried to agree to this on the previous night, but then he had found that he couldn't go through with it. And the feeling that something was terribly wrong was growing within him.  
  
"Serenity . . . this isn't a good time," he said finally, hating to say it but not regretting it when the words were out. "Somethin's wrong. I need to get back to the others." He knew Serenity wouldn't be happy with this, but he still felt it was the best decision. "I never should've agreed last night to let you come along. It's a promise that . . . I just don't think I can keep." Without waiting for her reply, Joey ran off down the hall and back to Bruce's office.  
  
****  
  
"Hello?" Joey called, pushing the door open. "Hey!! Are you guys still here?!" It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the near darkness inside, but then he realized that no one was there.  
  
Quickly he flipped on the light and stared, aghast, at the disarray that lay before him. Everything that the others had been looking at was strewn about on the floor, and there was a faint odor in the air that made him feel uneasy. Obviously the enemy had gotten to them all and done something with them. The thought that Serenity could have been caught up in whatever it was made Joey's blood run cold.  
  
"Yug, where are you??!!" he yelled frantically, pushing aside chairs and plants in the hope that he would find at least one of them had been left behind. "Tristan?? Téa??!" He called for each friend in turn but never received a reply.  
  
"Oh man . . . this is terrible," he cried then, sinking down onto the desk. "They're gone. . . . All of 'em . . . gone without a trace. . . ."  
  
His hand touched something and he looked down to see what it was. He found himself staring at a piece of cloth torn from what seemed to be a silk cape, most likely belonging to whoever had done this. Joey took the scrap of cloth in his hand and clutched it tightly, his eyes narrowed. "I'll find out who did this," he vowed. "I swear, I'm not gonna let any of you guys down."  
  
"Joey?"  
  
The Brooklyn boy looked up to see Serenity standing in the doorway, along with a concerned JP.  
  
"There was a security camera set up in here," JP said grimly. "I was called in by the head of security to see what was happening. Someone dressed up as a vampyre and apparently gassed everyone in here. I came as quick as I could, but . . ." He looked around, perplexed as how everyone had been taken away so fast. "It looks like I'm too late. . . ."  
  
Joey stared at the piece of cloth blankly. He could imagine Ishizu or Bakura or any of them fighting with the vampyre and frantically tearing at its cape before falling into unconsciousness, left to the demonic person's mercy. . . .  
  
Serenity knelt down in front of him, placing her hand over his. "We'll find them, Joey," she whispered. "I promise, big brother. We'll find them together."  
  
And Joey nodded numbly, feeling completely stricken.  
  
****  
  
Tristan felt a sharp kick in his ribs and groaned, not liking it at all.  
  
"Get up, fool!"  
  
Oh no, he moaned silently as he opened his eyes. I'm with Bakura's Yami!  
  
The old thief didn't look all that happy either. "Of all the things I have to put up with," he muttered.  
  
Tristan glared as he sat up. Idly he wondered where they were and tried to figure it out. It wasn't long before he realized that they were in the canyons on what seemed to be a rock's flat surface.  
  
It also wasn't long before he saw that Yami Bakura was intently staring at something down below. "Hey, what is it?" Tristan demanded, getting up and coming over.  
  
Yami Bakura didn't answer. Instead he continued to gaze down below them, and Tristan soon saw what the attraction was—much to his dismay.  
  
The ghost of the airplane's pilot stood amidst the remaining debris from the crash, glaring up at them!  
  
****  
  
Yugi gasped in horror as he opened his eyes and found that the view was upsidedown. "Hey!!" he cried, realizing he was hanging from a rope. "Someone get me down from here!!!"  
  
"Yugi!!" Bakura exclaimed from directly behind him. "We're tied together!!"  
  
"Oh!!" Yugi tried to turn himself around enough to get a good view of the British boy. "Are you okay, Bakura??!"  
  
"Fine," Bakura said with a weak smile, though he felt rather dizzy from the blood rushing to his head. "But we have to figure out how to get ourselves down!"  
  
"Merow," Oreo called from below them.  
  
"Where did you come from?!" Yugi demanded, his eyes widening.  
  
Oreo continued to meow and then indicated the Millennium Puzzle, which she was wearing around her neck.  
  
"How did she . . . oh never mind! Yami!!" Yugi called desperately. "Help!!!"  
  
To both his and Bakura's horror, there was no answer.  
  
"Something is wrong," Bakura said, his eyes opening wider. The ceiling from which they hung creaked dangerously. "Something else, that is," the boy gulped.  
  
****  
  
Marik gave a cry of alarm as he saw blood drip onto a nearby piece of ice. "Rishid!!" he screamed, realizing it was most likely his brother's blood. Furious, he grabbed the Frankenstein creature and began wrenching its arm around.  
  
"Marik, don't," Rishid rasped worriedly. At last he was released from Frankenstein's grasp and he fell to the floor heavily.  
  
Marik grunted in pain as he was thrown to the floor by the Wolfman. Eerily the beast towered over him, raising a clawed paw to stab into his heart. Before it could, Marik had lashed out and grabbed its wrist, squeezing as hard as he was able. It was then that he found some of the fur easily coming off in his hand. It was fake! Not that he'd ever believed it was real, but still, knowing for a surety that it was just someone in a costume was reassuring.  
  
Now Rishid had come up behind Marik's opponent and was taking hold of the mask it was wearing. In the next instant he yanked it off and Marik stared, appalled.  
  
"Bruce!!!" 


	13. Reappear, Disappear

In the next instant, Marik realized that something else wasn't completely right—Bruce had a completely blank expression, one that he was quite familiar with.  
  
"He's hypnotized!" the boy cried.  
  
Rishid turned to look in shock. "Not only that, but he appears to not be weak in fighting!" Quickly he came to assist his younger brother, but the Frankenstein jumped him before he could do anything to help. Then he found himself flat on his back, struggling against the inhuman strength of the monstrosity.  
  
"Rishid!!!!" Marik yelped. He wrestled with Bruce on the floor, trying to get the upper hand and worrying about his brother's safety.  
  
At last Rishid managed to throw the Frankenstein across the room. A strange silence followed.  
  
"He landed amongst the ice blocks," the man mused. "Why didn't they break?!"  
  
Marik looked up with a start, studying the scene as a new though occurred to him.  
  
It occurred to Rishid at the same time.  
  
"We're being mind-controlled!!"  
  
As soon as they screamed the words, the Frankenstein vanished, as did the slashes on Marik's arm. They were left with one Bruce in a Wolfman costume.  
  
"That was . . . extremely odd," Rishid declared.  
  
Marik shivered. He and Rishid had kept warm during the fight, but now the cold of the freezer was setting in again.  
  
Narrowing his eyes, Marik took hold of Bruce's shoulders and shook him firmly. "Snap out of it!" he ordered.  
  
Bruce only continued to regard him with a blank look.  
  
"This could take some work," Marik groaned, knowing they didn't have much time.  
  
"He obviously got in through another way," Rishid remarked. "We'll just have to figure out where and how and then get out before it's too late."  
  
****  
  
As Ishizu and Mokuba continued down the hall, the decor grew more and more eerie and foreboding.  
  
Mokuba made a face of disgust as they passed by a very bloody glaive hanging on the wall. "That looks recent!" he gasped as blood dripped to the floor.  
  
Ishizu quickly steered him away, uneasiness growing within her heart. She had the feeling that they were *not* the only ones in the house, and that whoever else was there was extremely evil. The glaive disturbed her immensely. She prayed that it had not harmed any of their loved ones.  
  
"Hey, what's this?!" Mokuba exclaimed, bending down to retrieve a piece of paper.  
  
Ishizu looked when Mokuba unfolded it. "It's a flight schedule," she replied. "The pilot was going from here in Domino to Seattle. And it's dated last night." This information intrigued her very much, and she was certain it was the plane Marik had been abducted on.  
  
Mokuba studied it as well and then perked up. "Hey, and it gives the pilot's name and the airport too!" He pointed to where it was typed.  
  
Pilot: Barry Russell  
  
Takeoff Point: Domino Heights Airfield  
  
"It gives the destination as the Summer Valley Private Airport in Seattle," Ishizu added, pleased with this knowledge. Carefully she refolded it and placed it in her dress. Perhaps they'd soon know the mystery behind the airplane incident!  
  
As they continued down the endless corridor, horrible screams arose from the walls and surrounded them.  
  
"Help!! Help us!!"  
  
"That's Bakura!" Mokuba gasped.  
  
"Come," Ishizu said grimly, again taking Mokuba's hand and leading him in what she hoped was the true direction of the cries of terror's origin. Whatever was happening, Bakura sounded absolutely petrified.  
  
****  
  
"Holy Mackerel!!" Tristan burst out, staring in disbelief at the scene before them.  
  
Yami Bakura growled, watching the airplane debris ignite. The flames rose higher and higher, the pilot's ghost going right along with them. "It's not a real spirit," he hissed in annoyance.  
  
"It's real enough," Tristan retorted. "What is it if it's not a ghost?!"  
  
Now Yami Bakura grunted, not certain himself. With a sneer he drew his deck and raised the Swords of Revealing Light, freezing the strange sight in place. "Let's go find out," he declared, heading down the slope.  
  
"Hey!" Tristan yelled, frustrated. "You didn't ask me!"  
  
"Should I have?" Yami Bakura retorted calmly.  
  
When they got down to where it was, Yami Bakura began to circle around the frozen fire and then carefully reached out to touch it.  
  
"Isn't that going to be hot?!" Tristan gaped.  
  
"No, you moron," Yami Bakura snapped, "because it's not real!" He paused and then added, "And neither is the pilot." He pushed his hand deeper into the strange substance. "It's a hologram!"  
  
Tristan's eyes widened. "But only KaibaCorp has that kinda technology!" he exclaimed.  
  
"Then perhaps we should investigate there," Yami Bakura said. "But first . . . someone here must have set the machine that will display the holograms." He looked around knowingly for just such a someone.  
  
Tristan cracked his knuckles. "If they're still around, they're gonna be sorry when I corner them!" he vowed.  
  
Though they searched for the better part of the following hour, neither of them found any real person lurking about. They did find the hologram projector, which Yami Bakura promptly wrapped in his jacket "so as not to destroy fingerprints."  
  
"They must be operating it by remote control," Tristan decided.  
  
Yami Bakura looked like he really couldn't care less. "Well, there is nothing more to see here. We shall return to town and locate the others." He left no room for argument.  
  
****  
  
In the meantime, Marik and Rishid were still searching for the way Bruce had entered the freezer. Marik, who was absolutely freezing, was now wearing Rishid's cloak—which the man had insisted his brother take.  
  
"I think I may have found it," Marik announced now, pressing on the back wall. "Something's loose here!"  
  
Rishid—pulling a mechanical Bruce—hastened over and helped the boy open what was, indeed, a secret exit. Quickly they left their potential tomb, Marik clutching the frozen Millennium Rod.  
  
Outside the freezer was a large, refrigerated room filled with shelves and shelves of milk and cheese. It was warmer than what the poor, shivering trio had come from, but still extremely cold. Marik blinked at everything in confusion and then realized where they must be.  
  
Rishid voiced Marik's thoughts. "This seems to be that country dairy store," he said slowly, finding the door that led into the main part.  
  
Marik smashed the ice block against the wall as he followed Rishid out, freezing the Rod. "The one with the cemetery right outside?" he wondered, raising an eyebrow. Before Rishid could answer, the boy rushed on, thinking aloud.   
  
"I doubt anyone could have put us in here unless they have the key or are an excellent lockpick." Marik looked around the darkened store and discovered that the front door was quite locked.  
  
Rishid noted grimly that they might be mistakenly arrested for trespassing and breaking and entering if they were caught, and he hoped they could escape without it being apparent that they had been in there.  
  
Bruce walked aimlessly ahead and bumped into the wall. With a start he came back to reality and gazed about. "What's happening?!" the man cried. "What am I doing in this terribly ridiculous getup?!" He stared down at the Wolfman costume in horror, as if he were suffering the worst fate known to man.  
  
"We have no idea," Marik sighed.  
  
Rishid had wandered over to another part of the store. "The door here is open," he announced. Thinking that it might be a trap, he looked out cautiously at the pitch black street and prevented Marik from getting out until he was sure it was safe.  
  
"Stay close to me," the man directed. Marik was only too happy to comply, but not because he thought something would happen to himself—he was only worried about Rishid's safety. Even though it wasn't easy to take the strong Egyptian down, it could be done, and Marik didn't want whatever was stalking them to try doing so.  
  
"But what's going on?!" Bruce yelled, much too loudly.  
  
"Be quiet!" Marik hissed. Subconsciously he pulled Rishid's cloak closer around him, finding the weather outside horribly cold and not much better than the freezer.  
  
Bruce glared at him. "I have a radio station to run!" he said in irritation. "I can't be marching around like I'm going to some masquerade party!"  
  
"That should be the least of your concerns," Rishid retorted. He hoped that Marik wasn't so cold after everything that he would develop hypothermia. His brother had been through so terribly much already. Admittedly, Rishid was cold himself, but he'd never say so if asked, and he wanted Marik to have his cloak for now.  
  
****  
  
By the time Ishizu and Mokuba found Bakura and Yugi, the rope holding the two boys up was barely still attached to the wooden beam in the ceiling.  
  
"The house is falling apart!" Bakura cried. The floor was quite far below them, and he knew that if they fell, they could both be seriously injured.  
  
"Hang on!" Mokuba called to him, hurrying to find a mattress. Once he did, Ishizu helped him carry it back over and underneath the spot where the two hapless boys were.  
  
They were just barely in time as the beam came free and sent them falling.  
  
After Yugi and Bakura were safely on the mattress, Ishizu and Mokuba worked to help them undo the ropes.  
  
"Where is your Yami?" Ishizu asked, narrowing her eyes.  
  
"I don't know," Yugi replied, worry evident in his own eyes. "He can't be in the Puzzle or he would've come to help!"  
  
"Meow," Oreo announced, still wearing the pyramid around her neck. Ishizu made a point to remove it and give it back to Yugi.  
  
"It's obvious somethin's wrong," Mokuba said, narrowing his eyes angrily.  
  
"Yes," Bakura agreed, "and why, if they want me, didn't they finish me off?" He said the last words very quietly, his brown eyes wide.  
  
"I guess we come right back to the theory that there's two sets of bad guys," Yugi sighed.  
  
Ishizu agreed with this and would have liked to tell them about the paper, but for now she knew the most important thing was to get away. She and Mokuba had been through the rest of the house by now, and no one else seemed to be anywhere being held prisoner.  
  
"Wait a minute," Yugi said now, staring at their surroundings as they all walked into the next room, "I know this place!"  
  
"You do?!" Mokuba said in confusion. "Well, what is it then?!"  
  
"We were here last Halloween," Bakura burst out, remembering then as well. "It was that horrible mansion that reappeared and disappeared at will!"  
  
"What??!" Mokuba was not pleased with this news. He ran to the window and looked out, wanting to get better acquainted with the surroundings outside. "It looks really weird out there!"  
  
Yugi ran over, a sinking suspicion in his mind. "It's teleported," he moaned. "With us in it!"  
  
****  
  
To Marik's and Rishid's surprise, they were able to make it back to the KETY studios without further incidents. Along the way, they demanded to know what had happened to Bruce, but all he had been able to tell them was seeing the Frankenstein stabbing him and Bakura running to help after it ran away. After that, he honestly hadn't remembered any more until he walked into the wall at the dairy.  
  
"That's quite a large chunk of the past few hours unaccounted for," Marik remarked. "Perhaps it's a post-hypnotic suggestion?"  
  
Rishid agreed that it was likely.  
  
"But what's going on back at my station?!" Bruce cried as they finally came in sight of it. "Everything's alright, isn't it?!"  
  
"Frankly, we don't know," Marik replied, opening the front door. "But there have been quite a few hijinks going on since you were stabbed. Oh, and your sister's on her way in from Washington." He had just barely remembered this.  
  
"Grace is coming here?" Bruce exclaimed.  
  
Before anyone could respond, Serenity came running out from down the lobby, a terrified expression in her eyes. "Marik!!" she cried in both relief and amazement. The boy was startled as she ran into his arms, shuddering as she sobbed.  
  
"Serenity, what on earth is the matter?!" Marik gasped, shocked at the normally shy girl's behavior. Gently he brushed the long pieces of hair away from her face.  
  
Serenity's eyes widened and she shivered. "Marik, your hands feel like ice cubes!!" she exclaimed. "What happened to you??"  
  
"Never mind," he said kindly. "What has you so upset?"  
  
The girl shook her head, tears again rising in her hazel eyes. "I can't find Joey anywhere!" she sobbed. "Joey's missing, Marik!! My big brother is missing!!" 


	14. Bernard's Secrets

Seto was getting tired of exploring the endless rows of corn. "There has to be a way out of here," he muttered, pushing another stalk aside.  
  
Téa looked uneasy. "Kaiba, is this the same cornfield from last autumn?"  
  
Seto grunted. "I couldn't care less if it is," he replied. "But in honesty, it probably actually is." To his relief, he finally reached the edge and stepped out into another large field, this one devoid of corn.  
  
"Oh great," Téa sighed, having hoped for some civilization.  
  
Seto started walking purposefully through the field and then noted with displeasure that it was familiar too. And he knew why.  
  
"Don't trip over the headstones," he said coldly as Téa approached.  
  
"Wha-?!" Téa looked down, her eyes widening as she saw one of the old, rounded headstones almost directly in front of her. That was the last thing she had been expecting.  
  
"That old house used to be here," Seto muttered.  
  
"But didn't it explode?!" Téa exclaimed.  
  
Seto didn't answer as the eerie abode suddenly materialized on the property once again. To his shock, however, he found Yugi staring out one of the windows.  
  
Téa noticed immediately. "Yugi!!!" she cried, running toward the house.  
  
Hoping that Mokuba would possibly be there as well, Seto immediately followed her.  
  
****  
  
Yugi had almost no sooner announced that the house had teleported before it portaled right back to where it was before.  
  
"That was really weird!" Mokuba cried, seeing the scenery out the window just changing without warning.  
  
"Hey! Téa's out there!!" Yugi gasped. "And Kaiba!!"  
  
Mokuba's eyes lit up. "Seto's here??!" he exclaimed, running to the door. "Come on! Let's get outside before we teleport again!!" With that he flung the door open and leaped into his brother's arms. "BIG BROTHER!!"  
  
Seto smiled, catching Mokuba and pulling him close. "Hey, kid," he said softly. "I'm glad you're safe."  
  
Ishizu, Bakura, and Yugi quickly followed Mokuba, exiting the house just as it vanished again.  
  
"I hope Yami wasn't in there!" Yugi exclaimed after greetings were exchanged all around, his eyes wide.  
  
"What?!" Téa stared at him. "Your Yami's missing?!"  
  
"He seems to be," Yugi said sadly. "I don't know what to do. . . ."  
  
"Meow," Oreo replied, batting at the Millennium Puzzle from where she was perched in Bakura's arms.  
  
"I think she knows something," Bakura said, shaking his head. "If only she could talk. . . ."  
  
Téa sighed. "Well, what are we going to do now?!"  
  
"We should find the others," Yugi replied. "Maybe Yami wound up with some of them!" He smiled hopefully.  
  
****  
  
Marik and Rishid stared at Serenity in shock. "Joey is missing?!" Marik repeated.  
  
"When did this happen?" Rishid asked, narrowing his eyes.  
  
Serenity leaned against Marik sadly. "He . . . he was so upset about . . . you two and all the others disappearing," she said. "He and I vowed that we'd find you again . . . and then he just took off running down the hall, saying something about talking to Phil Court!"  
  
"Phil Court?!" Bruce interrupted, looking confused. "What really is going on?! I'd rather like to know, when it's my station," he said sarcastically.  
  
"We'd all like to know," Marik retorted.  
  
"What happened then, Serenity?" Rishid prodded gently.  
  
Serenity shook her head. "I chased after him," she said, a tear now escaping her eye and trailing down onto Marik's hand. "And . . . this was the worst part. . . . I found this locked studio and I heard the sounds of a fight inside. . . . Joey was in there. I know he was!! I heard him cry out in pain at one point. Then . . . then . . ." She trailed off, unable to continue at the moment. Marik continued to hold her close, offering comfort in whatever small way he could.  
  
At last Serenity felt able to continue her tale. "Everything got quiet," she said shakily. "It just happened all of a sudden. And when I tried the door again, it opened. No one was inside!!"  
  
Marik exchanged a concerned look with Rishid. "Wasn't there any other way to get in and out of the room?" he asked.  
  
"No!" Serenity sobbed. "There wasn't any other way!! But Joey wasn't there when I went in!! Someone would've had to have taken him!!"  
  
"We will find him, Serenity," Marik whispered. He could understand how horrible the girl was feeling, as he was still so worried about Ishizu's whereabouts.  
  
"Can you take us to this room?" Rishid wanted to know.  
  
Serenity took a deep breath and tried to compose herself. "Of course," she managed to say. Soberly she led the Ishtar brothers down the hall from whence she had come a few minutes earlier. An annoyed Bruce trailed behind them, wanting to get out of the Wolfman costume but also wanting to get to the bottom of what was happening to his station.  
  
****  
  
When they got to the studio in question, Phil Court was in there, setting things up for Mandy's show the next morning.  
  
"Now what's going on?" he grumped, seeing Marik enter first and remembering him from earlier.  
  
"Serenity's brother was fighting with someone in here," Marik replied, narrowing his eyes. "Interestingly, he was coming to talk with you."  
  
Phil grunted. "I never saw him."  
  
"Hey! What's going on, Phil?"  
  
Everyone turned at the voice. A perky redhead was standing in the door, blinking at them all.  
  
"Who are you?" Rishid asked.  
  
"Rikki!" the girl chirped.  
  
Phil didn't look all that happy to see this Rikki. "Look, there's nothing going on here to concern yourself with," he growled. "I'm setting things up for Mandy. I'm sure you have errands to run and such."  
  
"Aww." Rikki crossed her arms and turned to Rishid and the others. "So what're you guys up to?" she asked. "I've heard about your mysteries and stuff."  
  
"Right now we're looking for one of our number—actually, several—who have gone missing." Marik didn't think any of the others were still at the station, but they were still looking for them all—not just Joey—and he wanted to make it clear that they hadn't forgotten any of them.  
  
"Whoa, serious?" Rikki blinked at him.  
  
"My brother's missing!" Serenity cried, running to her. "Please, have you seen him?!" Tearfully she described Joey, but Rikki had to admit that she hadn't seen anyone like that.  
  
Phil looked irritated. "I certainly had nothing to do with his disappearance," he snapped. "Stupid kid."  
  
"Joey is not stupid!" Serenity yelled angrily, turning to Phil with fire in her eyes. "He's always brave and strong!!"  
  
"Hey," Rikki said, taking notice of Bruce for the first time, "why are you wearing a wolf suit, Mr. Von Wilkenson?!"  
  
Bruce glowered. "THAT'S WHAT I'D LIKE TO KNOW!!!" he screamed.  
  
"No need to get touchy," Rikki exclaimed. "Sheesh."  
  
Marik and Rishid had been poking around the room while all of these exchanges went on. So far, they hadn't turned up anything.  
  
"There's some loudspeakers in here," Marik observed. "What if Joey wasn't in here at all, but it was being broadcast over those from where he actually was?"  
  
Rishid looked at the sound devices thoughtfully. "It's quite possible, I suppose," he admitted.  
  
"But if that is the case, then he could be anywhere in the station," Marik sighed. He just wished that they could find everyone and know that they were alright. Things had been so hectic lately that he hadn't really had much time to think, but he was keeping constant prayers for Ishizu's and the others' safety in his heart. He couldn't even begin to imagine what he'd do if something happened to his precious sister, and he didn't want to ever consider the possibility that it would. They would always come through their predicaments safely, he tried to reassure himself. After all, they always had before.  
  
Except for back at the Black Diamond Ranch. Ishizu had been so heartbroken at the loss of Shadi. . . . And yet . . . after their Boston experience, she had seemed . . . so much at peace—almost as if she had seen Shadi or had had some sort of closure. Could she have? Marik remembered her saying something about an "old friend" when they were about to depart for home.  
  
He jerked back to the present. He couldn't dwell on these things if he wanted to get Ishizu and Joey and Mokuba and all of them found. Thinking about the past wouldn't help, not now—unless he could think of a clue that would point to where they were.  
  
"Hey!" Rikki called, breaking into his thoughts. "Is that blood?!"  
  
Everyone whirled to look where she was pointing. Splashes of red were all over the carpet and the nearest wall.  
  
Marik narrowed his eyes and walked over to examine it. Serenity gave a cry of alarm and felt frozen to the spot. Rishid put his arm around the girl kindly.  
  
At last Marik looked up, not wanting to say it but knowing he needed to. "Yes," he said quietly. "It's blood."  
  
Rikki's eyes widened to the size of saucers. "Really?! Cool!" she declared instead of recoiling, as Serenity was.  
  
Rishid turned to look at this strange new girl, a serious look in his deep golden eyes. "There is nothing 'cool' about it," he scolded. "It could belong to Joseph."  
  
Before Rikki could reply, Bernard and Elsa appeared on the scene.  
  
"Bruce is a werewolf!!!" Elsa shrieked.  
  
"IT'S A COSTUME!!" Bruce screamed.  
  
"It couldn't be!" Bernard retorted.  
  
"ENOUGH!!!" Marik yelled, having had all he could take of the nonsense. "There are many peoples' lives at stake here. We don't have time to be arguing over such trivial matters as whether Bruce is running around as a creature that doesn't even exist." His temper was wearing extremely thin by now.  
  
Both Bernard and Elsa turned to glare at him. "Werewolves exist!" Bernard said indignantly. "The others even thought you'd turned into one!"  
  
Marik raised an eyebrow. "And how do you know that?" he demanded.  
  
Instantly Bernard went beet red. "I heard something about it from Phil," he said vaguely.  
  
"I don't believe you," Rishid said coldly. "Were you involved with that?"  
  
Elsa turned to stare at Bernard as well. "Were you?!" she wanted to know.  
  
Bernard threw his hands into the air. "No one trusts me!" he growled. "Not even you!" He fixed Elsa with a dagger look.  
  
"Should I?" Elsa crossed her arms. "I've always got along better without you!"  
  
"Just answer Rishid's question," Marik said irritably.  
  
Bernard, in response, turned to run. Instantly Marik reached out and grabbed him by the belt, pulling him back.  
  
"You're not going anywhere, my friend," the Egyptian boy said in a low tone, not using the term in the friendly way he always did with Mokuba.  
  
Bernard glared at him. "Let me go!! Let me go, you stupid Egyptian!!" He lashed out, kicking Marik hard in the leg.  
  
Outraged, Rishid ran forward and snatched Bernard by his shirt. "Do not insult my brother," he hissed.  
  
"I'll do whatever I please," Bernard growled. "Both of you, let go of me!!" He opened his mouth wide, revealing the abnormally long canine teeth, and then sank them into Rishid's hand. The man cried out in pain but only clutched at Bernard tighter.  
  
"Rishid!!!" Marik yelled, his eyes widening.  
  
"I could turn him into a vampyre if I bite him the right way," Bernard hissed. "Now—are you going to let me go or not?" 


	15. Grace's Arrival

Rishid pushed Bernard away from him with all his might while still trying to keep a good grip on his shirt. "Tell us what you know and we shall release you," he hissed, not intimidated. He was quite sure Bernard was wearing fake Halloween teeth, but even if he wasn't, Rishid didn't plan on backing down.  
  
Serenity watched all of this in absolute horror. "Oh please just let him go, Rishid!" she cried, not wanting anything to happen to someone else she cared about.  
  
Marik stuck the Rod against Bernard's back. "I think this should work as a stake very nicely," he said in a dangerous tone. "If you make one more attempt to harm Rishid, I won't hesitate to use it."  
  
Bernard's eyes went wild and he seemed to have genuine fear for the device being held on him. "I have friends I could call," he growled then.  
  
"You wouldn't get a chance." Marik narrowed his eyes. "Look, we don't wish to harm you. Tell us what we wish to know and leave Rishid alone!"  
  
Bernard stomped on Marik's foot and caused him to cry in pain. "You'll never learn anything from me!" he yelled in a defiant tone. "I'm sworn to keep it all secret and I intend to!"  
  
Elsa just looked at him in disgust. "From this point, you're outta the detective agency!" she declared.  
  
"It was a dumb thing anyway," Bernard retorted.  
  
With Rishid's help, Marik managed to wrestle the super strong younger boy to the floor and get him pinned there. "Do you know anything about where our loved ones are?" he demanded.  
  
"Of course not!" Bernard struggled, but Marik kept a firm grip. "Except. . . ." He narrowed his eyes. "My aunt Franceska wasn't too happy with you guys for what you did to the colony last year. I doubt she's gonna let you get away with it!"  
  
Marik had no clue what Bernard was talking about, but he knew it couldn't be good. "And you're saying she did something with the others?" he pressed.  
  
"I dunno," Bernard grumbled.  
  
Bruce, in the meantime, had wrestled his way out of the Wolfman costume and had thrown it across the room. "Why can't we have peace and quiet?!" he yelled. "Is it too much to ask??!!"  
  
"Well, you're sure helping provide some," Rikki remarked.  
  
Bernard, overcome by a burst of strength, threw Marik back and lunged at Rishid again, sinking his fangs into the man's neck. Rishid gave a strangled cry, struggling against the young vampyre and not having any success.   
  
Serenity screamed at the sight, wishing she knew what to do. She tried to grab at Bernard's arm and pull him away, but instead she wound up being flung back against the wall.  
  
"Let him go!!" Marik screamed, pouncing on Bernard and striking him with the Rod. "He hasn't done anything to hurt you!!! LET HIM GO!!!!"  
  
Bernard only laughed. "His blood is very tasty," he smirked. Rishid shoved him back in defense just as Marik was raising the Rod once more. Abruptly Bernard shrieked, being struck in the back with it.  
  
Marik moved out of the way as Bernard grabbed at the Rod and tried to pull it free. He hadn't wanted to actually wind up stabbing or staking the preteen vampyre, but when it was going after Rishid in such a manner, he hadn't known what to do. Surely it wouldn't be considered a crime to do what he had just done. . . . And it *had* been an accident anyways. . . .  
  
Bernard turned to glare at him. "This isn't over," he hissed. "I swear it!" Before Marik had time to react, the creature had vanished into thin air.  
  
"Oh!" Serenity gasped, getting up from where she had fallen by the wall. "That was horrible!!!"  
  
Marik was kneeling by Rishid, a lump in his throat. "Rishid?" he whispered. "Please, brother. . . . Say something. . . ."  
  
Rishid looked deathly pale. He made no response to Marik's pleadings and stared up at the ceiling blankly as he breathed heavily.  
  
Serenity's hand flew to her mouth. "That . . . thing. . . . It didn't . . ." She shook her head, alarm in her eyes.  
  
"Rishid!! Look at me!!!" Marik screamed, ignoring Serenity's words—though he knew exactly what the girl was worrying about and that he himself was concerned. Gently the boy lifted his brother's injured hand and cleaned the wound carefully before bandaging it. "Please, Rishid," Marik sobbed. "Don't leave me!! Please don't leave me. . . . Please don't. . . ." The boy laid his head on Rishid's chest and continued to cry, afraid that Rishid would die . . . or else go through a deadly transformation. Everything was so nightmarish lately. . . . Poor Marik didn't know what was real anymore and what was only fictitious.  
  
****  
  
Joey was still in the building. He had been fighting, but the loudspeaker had had nothing to do with it. He and his attacker had both fallen down a secret panel in the wall—much like the one Bakura had experienced—and now were continuing to scrap in the basement. Joey could hear the screams from above him, but he wasn't sure what was happening, as he was too busy dodging punches and delivering his own.  
  
"You've sure got a lotta nerve to be comin' around like this," the Brooklyn boy grumped. "Man, what the heck is your problem anyway??!!"  
  
"You kids are in my way!" an electronically altered voice responded just as their fist connected with Joey's jaw.  
  
Joey grunted and staggered back, but refused to give up. "Yeah? And why's that?! You got some kinda record pirating racket goin' on?!"  
  
"Maybe I just have," the voice replied, "or maybe it's deeper than that!!"  
  
Now Joey attacked, sending the person off-balance and to the floor. Instantly the boy flicked the lights on, anxious to see who he'd been fighting.  
  
He found himself staring at the vampyre from earlier.  
  
"Hey, you're the one who gassed all of us!!" Joey cried.  
  
The vampyre glared up at him as the fangs started to slip from his mouth. "Yeah? So?"  
  
Joey snatched the fangs away. "You must be a fake!" he deduced. "You've gotta be!"  
  
"I'm still dangerous," was the reply. "And you'd be surprised at the number of real ones you'll have to worry about!"  
  
****  
  
Tristan and Yami Bakura were heading back to town when they met up with Seto's group.  
  
"Man, am I glad to see you guys!" Tristan breathed in relief. "You won't believe what's been happening to us!"  
  
"I think that goes double for us," Téa declared. "We've been at the house that vanishes at will!!"  
  
"No way!" Tristan gasped. "I thought that place blew up!"  
  
"Obviously it reformed itself," Yami Bakura said irritably.  
  
"Marik and Rishid are not here," Ishizu said sadly, worried for her two precious brothers. She fingered the paper in her hand, trying to decide what to do about it.  
  
"Hey, what's that?" Tristan asked, noticing it.  
  
Ishizu explained as they walked along, after which Tristan recounted the hologram scare.  
  
"Someone did steal a hologram machine from me," Seto muttered. Narrowing his eyes, he added, "And I know the pilot it's talking about in that note."  
  
"Then who is it?!" Yugi exclaimed.  
  
"He was always reliable and upright in the past," Seto replied, staring ahead. "Prideful, though."  
  
"What he did to Marik sure wasn't reliable or upright!" Mokuba cried indignantly.  
  
They were about halfway to the KETY studio when they were stopped by a frantic-looking woman who bore a striking resemblance to Bruce.  
  
"Are you Grace?" Yugi asked her after introducing himself.  
  
Grace nodded. "Yes, and I'm looking for my brother," she said. "He runs the KETY radio station here, you know!"  
  
"We're familiar with Bruce," Bakura told her. "Unfortunately, as far as we know he's still missing."  
  
Grace shook her head. "He'd return to the station if he could," she insisted. "Radio is his passion!" Catching sight of Ishizu's paper and the pilot's name on it, Bruce's sister gasped and stared more closely at it, her eyes wide.  
  
"What have you found so shocking?" Ishizu asked calmly.  
  
Grace snatched the paper from her, her intense eyes nearly burning a hole through it. "That guy used to be my fiancé," she declared. "What are you doing with one of his flight schedules?!"  
  
Quickly Ishizu explained about her brother's predicament and how she had just come upon the note a few minutes ago. Grace hung on to every word, narrowing her eyes.  
  
"So he was involved in a scheme to do something with this Marik kid?" she said finally at the conclusion.  
  
"Yes," Ishizu nodded.  
  
"I can't believe that about him!" Grace spoke very softly, not angry but only puzzled.   
  
"We are journeying to KETY," Ishizu said. "Perhaps you would accompany us and enlighten us with tales about this man you admire?"  
  
Grace sighed. "What relevance is it to getting my brother?!"  
  
"Nothing, really, I don't think," Tristan said. "Just relevance to finding out what's going on around here."  
  
Grace just crossed her arms. "What's to tell? He seemed nice enough when we were going out." She wrung her hands, worried about Bruce.  
  
"But you two didn't get married," Yugi said slowly.  
  
"No," Grace said, shaking her head. "He was too cocky. Thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread." Her brow furrowed. "You know, he did say something kinda weird the last time I saw him. . . ."  
  
"Oh! What was it?" Bakura asked, perking up.  
  
"Well . . . this was about six weeks ago," Grace said. "We met up in the local grocery store, of all places. He was arrogant as ever. More so, I think. He told me that he had closed a hot deal and that he'd be rolling in dough before I could count to three."  
  
"Did he say anything about what it involved?" Ishizu asked calmly, continuing to pray that Marik and Rishid were alright.  
  
"Just something about some new flights he was making to here in Domino," Grace replied. "I didn't think anything of it at the time. It never once occurred to me that he might be into something illegal." She looked at them incredulously. "And now you're telling me that he could be a record pirate and worse—a kidnapper?!"  
  
"'Could have been,'" Ishizu said quietly. "He perished during the abduction of my brother. Marik should have died as well, but his precious life was spared."  
  
Grace blinked in surprise but then sighed and shook her head. "I guess it was bound to happen," she remarked. "He was always a risk taker."   
  
She looked up and smiled as she saw they were approaching KETY. "The lights are still on!" she reported. "Maybe Bruce just escaped the hospital and went back there." Chuckling, she added, "I can picture him doing exactly that!"  
  
In spite of the probable seriousness of everything, Yugi and the others—minus Seto—had to laugh.  
  
"That does sound like Bruce, alright," Bakura smiled.  
  
****  
  
None of them were prepared for the shock they discovered upon entering. Bruce was there, screaming orders at Phil Court and a strange redhead they hadn't seen before. And Serenity was kneeling on the floor beside an emotionally crushed Marik, who was desperately trying to get Rishid to respond to him.  
  
"Marik!!! Rishid!!!" Ishizu cried in horror, running to her brothers.  
  
"Marik, what's wrong?!" Mokuba burst out, dashing over as well.  
  
"Rishid is so listless," Marik whispered, clutching at his older brother's cloak. "He won't acknowledge me at all, but his eyes are open!!!"  
  
Grace surveyed everything, her eyes wide, and then ran to her brother and started demanding explanations from him. Bruce tried to answer her as best he could, but with the post-hypnotic suggestion he'd been given he still didn't remember much at all, and Marik was too overwrought to try filling in any details.  
  
"Stay with us, Rishid," Marik whispered. "Fight whatever is tormenting you, brother! Please!!"  
  
"I don't understand what happened here!!" Yugi gasped.  
  
"He was bit by a punk vampyre," Phil grunted, not seeming surprised.  
  
"What?!" Bakura cried. "Oh my!! No!!! Not Rishid!!!" Sadly he shook his head. "It's just one thing after another. . . ."  
  
"And here's another."  
  
Everyone whirled at the deep, familiar voice.  
  
"Yami!!!" Yugi exclaimed. "And . . . Joey???!!!" His violet eyes widened with horror as Yami Yugi came in with a stumbling Joey Wheeler, the blonde boy's arm around his shoulder.  
  
"Where have you been?!" Tristan wanted to know. "And what's wrong with Joey??!!"  
  
Hearing her brother's name, Serenity looked up in alarm and then ran over. "Joey!!!" she screamed. "Joey, what's wrong??!! What happened??!!"  
  
"Hey, it's alright, sis," Joey smiled weakly and then felt his legs crumple under him. Yami Yugi and Serenity immediately tried to steady him, without much luck. "At least . . ." Joey held something up in his hand. "I got an important clue. . . ."  
  
Yugi took it from him when he held it out. "What is it?!" he cried, turning the envelope over and over in his hands.  
  
"Eh. You'll see. Maybe you can make heads or tails out of it." Joey sighed and leaned against a chair before sinking into it.  
  
Yugi put it in his pocket for later. Right now, he knew, the most important thing was to make sure his friends would be okay. Joey didn't seem too much the worse for wear, but Rishid on the other hand was starting to disturb him highly.  
  
"Rishid!!!" Marik screamed, tears dripping from his kind lavender eyes. "DO SOMETHING!!! Please . . . this is breaking my heart. . . . I can't stand to see you like this!!!" He gazed into Rishid's sightless golden eyes.   
  
~I remember how your eyes always watched me, how they followed my every move. They say eyes are the window to the soul. . . . Yours, Rishid, my brother, bespoke the gentle, kind spirit you have. . . . Even though your appearance may be forbidding and even a bit nerve-racking to those who don't you, all they would have to do is look into your eyes, so full of compassion and docility, to know that they have nothing to fear from you. . . . Unless, of course, they are doing evil. You never let anyone get away with that.  
  
But now your eyes are blank and emotionless. I see nothing there. I see nothing, Rishid—no strong spirit, no kindness, no hint of the brother Ishizu and I love so dearly! It frightens me to no extent!! Where are you, Rishid?! Are you even still there??! Answer me, Rishid!!! PLEASE!!~  
  
Marik looked down and closed his eyes, finishing the message he was trying to get through to Rishid mentally. He didn't know if Rishid would even hear him, but they had a special brotherly bond that he didn't intend to have broken by some vampyre.  
  
Ishizu was tending to the puncture wounds on the poor man's neck, tears of anger in her eyes that her older brother would be treated this way. Why have we been targeted?! Ishizu felt like screaming. Why are we being put through so much agony on this case??!  
  
Is it some sort of test of strength?!  
  
She looked up as Rishid made a slight gesture with his hand. Painstakingly he reached up and brushed Marik's tears away, his hand shaking. He managed a small smile, his eyes reclaiming their kind look.  
  
Marik sat in shock for several moments and then cried out in joy, throwing his arms around the brother he loved so dearly. 


	16. Domino Heights Airfield

At Rishid's actions the others relaxed. They knew he would be alright. Ishizu smiled, reaching down to embrace the man as well. Rishid hugged her and Marik as well, his weakness obvious.  
  
"Rest, my brother," Marik said softly, recruiting Tristan and Seto to help him get Rishid onto the couch in the corner. Rishid smiled his gratitude, squeezing Marik's hand gently as he closed his eyes.  
  
Yugi breathed a sigh of relief and then turned to the puzzle of the envelope Joey had given him. While he carefully opened it, he and Téa quizzed the Pharaoh on his whereabouts.  
  
"I don't know what happened," Yami Yugi sighed. "I found myself down in the basement, just in time to help Joey fight the vampyres that were summoned."  
  
"Summoned?!" Yugi exclaimed. "By whom?!"  
  
"By some freak who was pretendin' to be one!" Joey replied from where he was relaxing in his chair. "Oh man . . . so many vampyres. . . ."  
  
Marik's eyes suddenly widened as he remembered something Bernard had said. "Did any of you know someone named Franceska?" he asked.  
  
Bakura instantly paled. "Franceska?!" he fairly yelped.  
  
Téa laid a hand on his shoulder. "Franceska caused a lot of trouble for us last Halloween," she said. "Especially for poor Bakura."  
  
Marik sighed. "Well . . . the treacherous creature who bit Rishid said that this Franceska is out for revenge," he reported.  
  
Yami Bakura grunted. "Then so be it," he said. "But if she tries to do anything to Bakura, this time she will have me to deal with first!"  
  
"Meow," Oreo chirped, as if in agreement.  
  
Now Yugi got the envelope open and several sheets of apparently blank paper fell out. "Huh?!" He blinked, so terribly confused.  
  
"I know it looks crazy," Joey said, "but it must be important somehow. That vampyre impersonator was carryin' it around."  
  
"Maybe you're supposed to hold it up to the light," Serenity suggested.  
  
"Well, it can't hurt to try," Yugi said, raising a sheet in front of a nearby lamp. Slowly the outlines of words appeared vaguely.  
  
"Here's what you have to do," Seto grunted, taking the sheet and setting it on the table. Then he took a pencil and scribbled over it lightly. The words jumped out at him then and he sat back with a smirk.  
  
Mokuba reached over and pulled the paper down to look at. "It's some kinda list of songs!" he cried.  
  
Phil glared. "Let me see that!" he ordered, snatching it away.  
  
"Hey!" Mokuba said indignantly, trying to reach for it again.  
  
Bruce narrowed his eyes. "Then it is true!" he said in anger, coming over for a better look. "These are all songs that have been pirated lately!"  
  
Phil slammed the paper onto the table again and clenched his fists. "But it isn't me this time!" he protested.  
  
"I know," Bruce replied. "I know it's not!"  
  
"Wait a sec—this time?!" Tristan repeated. "Just what's been going on??"  
  
Phil gave him a dark look. "We all have things in our pasts that we're not proud of," he retorted. "I used to buy pirated records for the station. Later on I even made some of my own. But then Bruce found out about it. He said he wouldn't report me to the authorities if I changed my ways." He narrowed his eyes even more. "Bruce is the first honest guy I've ever worked for. It's a new experience for me, but I don't intend to mess it up. No, I'm not involved with whatever's going on now, but I want to know who is."  
  
The others looked at him, startled. He had been a suspect through most all this case. Was he really innocent?  
  
Yugi looked at his Yami to see what he thought about it. The Pharaoh gave a curt nod, letting the boy know that he was certain Phil was on the level.  
  
"Alright," Yugi said, turning back to face him, "we're going to trust you. Can you tell us about the private plane the shipments sometimes came in on?"  
  
Phil crossed his arms. "Of course I can," he said. "It always came in from somewhere in Washington, flown by some hotshot pilot who frequently seemed to travel back and forth. When I was buying, all I had to do was present the check and take the boxes inside. And when I was selling, I would carry the boxes out to the plane and get my check."  
  
"It was most likely that same plane that Marik was abducted on," Ishizu spoke up. "Can you think of any reason why they would want my brother?"  
  
Phil thought for a long minute and then sighed. "I'm afraid not," he said.  
  
Joey had listened to all this with a suspicious look on his face. He didn't know if they should be trusting Phil. After all, he'd said that Bruce was the first honest guy he'd worked for. Surely, Joey thought, working for so many dishonest guys would turn one into quite the unscrupulous person. Phil could be pulling a fast one. Joey intended to keep his eyes on him.  
  
"So now what?" Téa sighed. "We're not any closer to finding out what's going on around here!"  
  
"I *do* have an idea," Bakura said shyly. "What if we visited the airfield on the flight schedule Ishizu found? If those record pirates are still in business, they may have hired another pilot. At any rate, we may learn something more about Barry Russell."  
  
"That's a great idea, Bakura!" Yugi praised. "Alright, let's go!"  
  
"Are we all going?" Téa wondered, looking from Joey to Rishid.  
  
"Heck, I am!" Joey cried, pulling himself up.  
  
"Joey, you should rest!" Serenity objected, knowing her brother had been hurt in the fight.  
  
"Aw, I'm fine, sis," Joey smiled.  
  
"Rishid must rest," Marik said softly, watching his brother sleeping.  
  
"All of you go," Ishizu added. "We will stay here."  
  
The others quickly agreed to this arrangement and soon left, knowing that Rishid was in no condition to get up and become involved in the mystery again after being viciously bitten several times by the vampyre.  
  
"We have to come with you!" Bruce cried as Yugi and those going with him were heading to the door. "Phil and I are coming!!!"  
  
"And so am I!" Grace exclaimed.  
  
"Don't be ridiculous!!" Bruce exploded. "You're staying HERE!!!"  
  
"Bruce Von Wilkenson, I'm coming and that's final!!" Grace yelled back.  
  
Joey winced. "Man . . . that sounds familiar. . . ." He wanted to tell Serenity to stay behind, but he couldn't help feeling like he'd prefer his sister to be with him as opposed to wandering around the dangerous KETY studios tonight.  
  
Rikki, who had been silent throughout all of this, abruptly stepped forward and grabbed at Joey. "Hey, I'd love to come with you guys, but I have a show to do," she said. She also suspected there'd be more action at the station and she wanted to stick around for when it happened. "But . . . I found something that might help." She dug around in her pocket until she produced a picture from a security camera of a horrible-looking man with a deadly scar on the right side of his face.  
  
"OH!!" Bakura gasped. "That's him!! That's the one who stabbed Bruce and tried to kill me!!!"  
  
Yami Bakura snatched the picture from Rikki. "Where did you get this?!" he demanded to know.  
  
"Found it coming out of the camera," Rikki replied. "It was some kinda weird one that was like a Polaroid as well as a video thing! Must be a new item on the market. I wouldn't mind having one!"  
  
"Why would it be coming out of the camera?!" Marik asked with a raised eyebrow.  
  
"Maybe someone was printing it out," Rikki shrugged. "And then they got scared away or something. But oh well." She pointed to the bottom. "The date on it is yesterday. Must've been taken when he burst in to stab Mr. Von Wilkenson."  
  
After thanking Rikki for the picture and warning the Ishtars to be very careful, the others set out for the airfield.  
  
"Yug, is it just me or are you feelin' some kinda forebodin' about going there?" Joey whispered. "I sure as heck am."  
  
Yugi sighed. "I wish it was just you, Joey, but I feel it too."  
  
****  
  
Domino Heights Airfield seemed to be deserted when the group arrived. There weren't any lights on in the observation tower, and the only airplanes around seemed to be old, broken-down models.  
  
"This looks like an airplane graveyard!!" Téa cried, gesturing around. "I don't think anything here is in working order!!"  
  
Tristan tapped on the propeller of a bi-plane near him and then gasped when it started up seemingly by itself. "Guys, not only that, but I think it's haunted!!" the hazel-eyed boy announced.  
  
Oreo stared at the twirling propeller and then gave a loud hiss, her fur standing on end. Yami Bakura scooped her up in annoyance, muttering under his breath.  
  
"I just don't get it," Yugi said, shaking his head. "Was Barry Russell only using this airport name on the flight schedule?!" He didn't really see how that would be possible if the man had had a legal pilot's license, however.  
  
"It'd be nice if we could just ask the guy," Joey remarked.  
  
"This is the kinda place he might be hangin' out at now," Tristan said facetiously.  
  
Serenity gave him a reproving look, not liking the morbid talk. She moved closer to Joey, glancing around nervously at everything.  
  
Suddenly Bakura froze. "Did anyone hear that?!" he cried.  
  
"What, you dolt?!" Yami Bakura grunted.  
  
"That scratching sound!" Bakura replied, trying to discern what direction it was coming from.  
  
"I didn't hear anything, buddy," Tristan said.  
  
"I did," Yugi said quietly. "It came from over there." He pointed ahead.  
  
"Well, then, what are we waiting for?!" Bruce said impatiently. "Anything to wrap this case up! Let's go see what the devil it is!!!"  
  
Slowly the group approached the dilapidated plane from which the sound seemed to come. Now they could all hear it.  
  
"It's too loud for a mouse," Tristan mused.  
  
Seto walked up and peered in. Nothing was immediately visible and so he clicked on a flashlight Mokuba had been carrying with him to shine around.  
  
"See anything, man?" Joey asked, trying to look over the businessman's shoulder.  
  
"Someone's tied up in the corner," Seto replied, climbing in. The others soon followed, amazed that they could all fit, and quickly made their way into the corner Seto had indicated. Yugi turned the person to face them and then cried out in utter shock.  
  
"No! It can't be!" he gasped.  
  
It was Bernard!  
  
****  
  
Ishizu smiled, watching Marik start to doze. Before long her brother managed to get himself half on the couch and half on the floor and then promptly fell asleep.  
  
Gently Ishizu took off her white cape and laid it across Marik and Rishid both. It wouldn't keep then that warm, but it was better than nothing.  
  
"You have been through so very much," she said softly, wishing it would all stop. All she wanted was for them to be able to relax for a good long while without crimes interfering with the peace.  
  
A motor outside the wall broke into her train of thought and the Egyptian woman stood up, going to the window.  
  
A small plane was landing in the field!  
  
"The criminals must have acquired a new aircraft and pilot," Ishizu said to herself. Deciding to get a better look, she opened the door quietly and slipped outside.  
  
Marik stirred with the noise of the plane and the opening door and looked up. "Sister?!" he cried, catching sight of the aircraft and Ishizu's form going out into the night. "Sister, come back!!!!" He ran over to the door and hauled it open again.  
  
"This must be something in connection with the criminals," Ishizu told him, not surprised to see her brother running out. "Marik, you should go back inside with Rishid."  
  
"I can't leave you out here, Ishizu!" Marik retorted, feeling torn.  
  
The airplane, whose pilot had obviously caught sight of the siblings, suddenly turned in their direction. Ishizu's eyes widened in horror as she grabbed Marik's wrist and pulled him away. But no matter where they ran, the plane always caught up to them.  
  
"It wants us!" Marik growled.  
  
The aircraft made another sweep past them, the side door wide open. Before either of them could do anything, a lasso flew out and wrapped around them both, pulling them inside.  
  
Both Ishizu and Marik let out screams of shock and pain as they flew through the air and then crashed down on the hard metal floor.  
  
"They're taking us with them!!" Ishizu realized as the plane started to take to the skies again.  
  
And then Rishid was stumbling outside and running to the aircraft, grabbing onto the edge of the open doorframe as they rose into the air.  
  
Marik's eyes widened in utter alarm. "Rishid!!" he cried, grabbing the man's wrists. Ishizu helped him, and miraculously Rishid managed to pull himself up into the plane.  
  
"Rishid, you shouldn't have done that," Ishizu objected softly. "You could have been hurt seriously!"  
  
Rishid simply shook his head and collapsed on the floor, still very weak. He hadn't been about to let both of his siblings get abducted in this way.  
  
After Marik made sure that his brother hadn't injured himself more, he stood up with fire in his eyes. Fear surged within him that this plane would go down just as the other one had and that they would all die. But he refused to let that happen.  
  
"I've had enough of being used this way!!!" he hissed. "I am going to find out, once and for all, what is happening here!!!" With that he stormed into the cockpit, having many flashes of deja vu, and then stood still in shock.  
  
There wasn't anyone piloting the craft! 


	17. Tower Rescue

Marik continued to gaze in disbelief at the sight. It wasn't on auto pilot, but still it was operating naturally. It was unheard of!  
  
Ishizu, who was tending to Rishid, looked up and saw Marik's rigid form standing there in the doorway. "What is it, brother?" she asked.  
  
"There isn't anyone out there!!" Marik replied, spooked.  
  
Rishid gazed up at him. "Perhaps they bailed out," he suggested.  
  
Marik shook his head, explaining how it wasn't on auto pilot and yet seemed to be in working order. "I'm going to try taking control of it myself," he growled. Without waiting for a response from his siblings, he entered the cockpit and went to sit down to do exactly that.  
  
Instead he felt an invisible hand grab him around the throat and lift him into the air.  
  
"Unhand me!!!" he screamed, flailing about helplessly.  
  
In an instant Ishizu and Rishid were at his side, struggling to assist him in getting free.  
  
"Release my brother!" Ishizu ordered, her eyes narrowed in anger.  
  
A maniacal laugh was the only reply and then Marik was thrown against poor, weakened Rishid, sending them both to the floor.  
  
Marik coughed, gasping for breath, and then quickly moved off of Rishid's lap, hoping his brother hadn't been hurt.  
  
Rishid hadn't been; he was only stunned by all of this and quickly pulled Marik close to him protectively. "What is the meaning of this?!" he demanded.  
  
"Why must you torment us this way?!" Ishizu added, relieved that at least her brothers were alright. "What have we done to you?! Who are you??!"  
  
"Oh, you don't know me," was the reply. "I'm just known to cause trouble for anyone I please."  
  
Marik didn't look happy. "Then there's not even a reason for this madness?!"  
  
"There may be," the voice said. "But I don't think I'll tell you."  
  
"At least tell us where you plan to take us!" Ishizu retorted.  
  
"Oh, we'll be there soon enough. Just sit back and enjoy the ride!"  
  
Marik glared at the air. "It seems we don't have any choice," he muttered. He had considered trying to have everyone jump out of the plane incase there were plans to crash it, but that idea had been abolished upon not being able to find any parachutes. So he supposed all they could really do was trust that this plane wouldn't crash . . . and keep praying for safety.  
  
****  
  
Bernard stared at Yugi with wild eyes, as if pleading for him or someone to remove the gag in his mouth.  
  
"Man, what the heck's this creep doin' tied up in here?!" Joey said in distaste.  
  
Yugi carefully removed the gag that had been silencing the younger boy but made no move to undo the ropes. "Explain yourself!" he cried.  
  
Bernard's expression turned angry. "What's to explain?!" he snapped. "I'm tied up in here!!! That Joey guy said it all!"  
  
"Yeah? Well, you deserve it after what you did to Rishid!" Mokuba said hotly.  
  
Bernard blinked. "Rishid?! What'd I ever do to him??!"  
  
"Don't play that game with us!" Joey said in irritation. "Man, you know exactly what you did to him! He's still weak after it, and you know how hard it is to weaken that guy!"  
  
"I don't think he does know, Joey," Bakura exclaimed.  
  
"What??!!" Joey glared at the British boy. "That's impossible!"  
  
"Maybe not," Bakura said, shaking his head and causing his silvery hair to fly about. "Perhaps that vampyre disguised himself as Bernard, hoping to fool us!"  
  
"VAMPYRE?!" Bernard gasped, his eyes bugging out.  
  
"We might tell you about it," Tristan said slowly, "if you tell us what you remember!"  
  
Bernard struggled against the ropes, but he could tell they weren't going to untie him unless he cooperated. "Fine!" he grumbled. "Elsa and me were looking for clues to how Bruce could be connected with everything when we got separated. Then I got gassed and woke up here. End of story!"  
  
"I don't know, guys," Tristan said, shaking his head. "Do you believe him?!"  
  
"I know one way to find out!" Joey yelled, suddenly forcing Bernard's mouth open and staring to see if the fangs were there. Téa looked at him with disgust.  
  
After a minute Joey leaned back, annoyance and confusion in his eyes. "No fangs," he reported.  
  
"Of course there's no fangs!" Bernard grumped. "I'm no vampyre!!!"  
  
Yugi sighed. "Well . . ." He shook his head. "We'll take your word for it." With that he began to remove the ropes.  
  
"Thanks," Bernard muttered, rubbing his sore wrists. "What is this place anyway?!"  
  
"An airplane graveyard," Joey declared.  
  
"It looks that way," Yugi agreed, "but there may be some life yet. Let's go to the control tower and see if we can find anything there!"  
  
The others, though wary, all agreed and soon the group headed inside the rickety tower.  
  
"This certainly is deserted," Bakura said uneasily, looking around the lobby.  
  
"Let's climb the stairs to where all the actual controls are," Tristan suggested. "Maybe there'll be something up there!" The others agreed and soon were at the top.  
  
"I don't think anyone's been up here for at least ten years," Téa remarked, narrowing her eyes.  
  
"Merow," Oreo announced from where she was pawing through a desk.  
  
"Find anything?" Joey asked idly.  
  
In response the kitty nudged a paper toward him and meowed again.  
  
"Hey, it's that same list from the station!" Téa cried, staring at it.  
  
"We've gotta be on the right track then!" Mokuba chirped.  
  
"Perhaps you are!" an eerie voice cackled.  
  
Everyone looked around in shock, trying to find the source. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.  
  
"Don't be a coward!" Yami Bakura snarled. "Come out of the shadows and reveal your identity!!" He, for one, had had quite enough of nonsense for ten thousand lifetimes.  
  
"You would like that, wouldn't you?" the voice came back.  
  
Seto slammed his hand on the desk. "You've been messing with us for long enough!" he growled.  
  
"That's right!" Mokuba said indignantly. "Look at everything you've done to poor Marik and his family!! What is it with you guys?! What are you after??!"  
  
"Oh poor Marik," the voice repeated mockingly. "It's too bad he has something we want."  
  
"Yeah? And what's that?!" Téa demanded. "The Millennium Rod?!"  
  
"Very astute of you, my dear," the voice laughed.  
  
"WHAT SORT OF RACKET HAVE YOU BEEN OPERATING IN MY STUDIO??!!!!" Bruce screamed. "I ORDER YOU TO COME OUT THIS MINUTE!!!"  
  
"I don't think so," was the response. "Where would be the fun in that?"  
  
"At least tell us who you are!" Yugi cried.  
  
"You don't know me," the voice said smoothly. "I believe you do know a friend of mine, though, don't you? Franceska?"  
  
"Then she *is* behind all of this!" Téa fumed.  
  
"Oh yes, very much so!" There was a deadly pause. "And none of you pathetic fools will ever make it back downstairs!"  
  
"What do you mean?!" Yami Yugi said angrily.  
  
"In exactly five minutes, the bottom of this tower is going to collapse," comes the self-satisfied, smirking answer. "And you'll have nowhere to go in this little place up here—since the door has just been locked—so you'll go down. And none of you will survive that plunge!"  
  
****  
  
The plane jerked violently and Ishizu had to steady herself on a stack of crates. Rishid, still weak, was sitting on the floor. Marik, worried about his well-being, was sitting right next to him.  
  
Marik had tried several more times to get into the cockpit, but each time he had been accosted by the unknown force. He had even tried using the Millennium Rod, but it hadn't seemed to have done any good. So with an angry sigh he had resigned himself to the face that there was nothing he could do at the moment. But the instant the plane stopped, he vowed, he would get to the bottom of this.  
  
Ishizu glanced out the window. "We seem to be approaching a deserted airport," she announced with a frown.  
  
"Oh joy," Marik muttered, raising himself up to look out.  
  
"Within five minutes, your friends in the observation tower will all perish," the voice told them.  
  
"WHAT??!" Marik sprang to his feet, fire in his eyes. "What have you done?!"  
  
"Oh, I didn't do that. One of my enemies set it up. Feel free to try rescuing them if you think you can. Now I relinquish control of the plane to you." With that the Ishtars could feel the presence leave.  
  
Instantly Marik dove for the controls to keep the plane on a level course. "We have to do something," he said, focusing his attention on the control tower ahead of them. "If we could just get them all here into the airplane. . . ."  
  
"Perhaps we can!" Ishizu exclaimed, looking around and producing a rope ladder. "They could all climb up with this."  
  
"Try the radio," Rishid suggested. "See if you can make contact with them." Slowly he pulled himself up, ignoring the pain.  
  
Marik nodded and put the headset on. "Hello?" he called. "Domino Heights Airport?"  
  
In the control tower, Joey leaped a mile into the air. "What the heck?!" he yelled. "Another voice comin' outta nowhere??!"  
  
"No, Joey!" Serenity told him. "It's coming from the radio this time—and it's Marik!!" Quickly she ran over and snatched the microphone. "Marik!! What's going on??!" She was immensely terrified about everything that the voice had just said, but she was trying desperately to be strong.  
  
"We're in this plane just outside!" Marik told her. "I think we can get all of you out, but we're going to have to hurry. Is that window unlocked?"  
  
Quickly Bakura, Yami Yugi, and Téa ran over to inspect it. "It's locked!" Bakura said in despair, not that he hadn't expected it.  
  
"Find something to break it with!" Rishid called. "We will come as close as we can and let the rope ladder down."  
  
"Man, what are we gonna find to break it with?!" Joey yelled.  
  
Without answering, Seto calmly smashed it all in with his briefcase.  
  
It wasn't long before everyone was trying to climb up onto the ladder and into the plane. There were quite a few tense moments—including Téa, Serenity, and Mokuba all nearly falling off the ladder—but then they were all safe and sound inside the plane.  
  
"Thank goodness!" Ishizu whispered when the tower crashed to the ground barely ten seconds later.  
  
"Whoa, man, that was too close!!" Joey yelled.  
  
Serenity clung to him, obviously having the same thoughts. "Why are they trying to kill us?!" she said angrily.  
  
"Some people are like that," Tristan sighed, wanting to clobber whoever was responsible.  
  
The radio in the cockpit crackled to life. "Very good," the voice from the tower cackled. "You managed to rescue every one of those fools—even the cat!"  
  
Oreo hissed at being called a fool.  
  
Marik narrowed his eyes. "What sort of twisted game is this?!" he demanded.  
  
"Unfortunately, not a game. You disrupted my plans!! And you will all suffer greatly for that!!!" Before anyone could answer, the connection was broken off.  
  
"What's that up ahead?!" Téa gasped.  
  
"It's some kinda weird funnel," Joey said.  
  
"Not just a funnel!" Marik replied, grabbing at the control frantically. "A tornado!!! And we're being dragged toward it!!!" 


	18. New Place of Attack

Notes: XD This is a Halloween mystery and tornados can pop up wherever ^__~ But I never said they were in Japan XD I follow the dub, which states very clearly in the episode that introduces Ishizu, "Welcome to America!" I don't feel that I'm detracting from the plot by putting them here in the U.S., so if anyone chooses to complain about it, it won't change anything ^__~ Tee hee!  
  
  
  
  
  
"TORNADO?!" Téa screamed. "What's a tornado doing here in Oregon?!"  
  
"I doubt very much that it is supposed to be here," Rishid said grimly, meaning that it was probably set up by the enemies instead of coming about naturally. Quickly he grabbed the controls on the copilot's side, trying to assist Marik.  
  
"It's no use!" Marik cried, pulling back hard on the lever and then toppling backward to the floor as the lever and the chair both broke. "We're being forced into the vortex!"  
  
"There are no seatbelts," Ishizu observed. "Everyone, we must gather here in a group hug. There is safety in numbers." No one protested.  
  
"This is worse than a roller coaster!" Téa cried.  
  
"Stay strong," Yami Yugi replied. "I sense they are not attempting to kill us. They only wish to force us somewhere else."  
  
Marik closed his eyes tightly, moving closer to his siblings. He was certain the plane would crash, and he didn't want Ishizu or Rishid to be harmed. He prayed that the Pharaoh was right and that no one would perish.  
  
Rishid struggled to get his arms around Ishizu and Marik. He, being the strongest, felt that he should be the one to protect the other Ishtars. He felt extremely dizzy from the vampyre bites, but he was fighting so very hard to stay conscious.  
  
Mokuba grabbed onto Seto and wouldn't let go. The plane, instead of swirling around in the tornado, was plunging straight downward and Mokuba was feeling a lump of nervousness rising in his throat. The next thing he knew, there was a sickening thump and everything went dark.  
  
****  
  
Yami Bakura awoke first and found Bakura laying next to him. "Wake up, fool," he grunted, shaking him hard. Bakura didn't stir and the thief angrily tried again.  
  
"Hey, hey, HEY!" Tristan scolded, pulling him away. "Be gentle!"  
  
Yami Bakura growled at him in response.  
  
Ishizu, meanwhile, had woken up in Rishid's arms and found that both he and Marik were unconscious. "Brothers!" she whispered urgently. "Brothers, wake up!"  
  
Mokuba was having the same trouble reviving Seto. "Big brother!" he wailed. "Get up, Seto! PLEASE!!" He refused to consider the possibility that Seto wouldn't get up. His brother wouldn't leave him, he told himself, though he was adding somewhere in the back of his mind, Not if he could help it. . . . But of course he could! Seto would fight!  
  
"What's happened here?!" Téa cried in horror. "It looks like everyone who has a brother isn't being able to wake them up!" After looking around, she let out a gasp as she saw Yugi, Serenity, and Grace struggling to rouse Yami Yugi, Joey, and Bruce. Since the Yamis and Hikaris loved each other like brothers, that was why they were affected too.  
  
"This is horrible!" Serenity quavered. Her worst fears were being made manifest. Joey was laying here, so still, and Serenity couldn't help him! It was a nightmare! A terrible nightmare that she wasn't able to wake up from! "Joey!!" she screamed, touching his shoulder. "Oh, I was afraid this would happen!" she wailed. "I was so afraid it would!!"  
  
All of the pleading cries had attracted attention by this time and Duke suddenly appeared in the doorway, the plane having landed right near his shop. "What happened?!" he cried, echoing Téa without knowing it. He wasn't sure what to be most shocked about—that his friends were there in a crashed plane or that half of them were unconscious.  
  
"Something's wrong!" Téa told him, wringing her hands. "Something's horribly wrong!"  
  
Duke looked around and soon found Tristan trying to help Serenity with Joey. Of course he hurried over as well. Tristan was too caught up in worrying and comforting to care at the moment.  
  
Mokuba was in tears by this point. "Seto, you've gotta open your eyes!" he sobbed, tugging on the older boy's arm. "SETO!!"  
  
Ishizu's distress was multiplied since she had two brothers who weren't moving. No matter how she tried, the poor woman couldn't get a response out of either Rishid or Marik.   
  
Yami Bakura and Yugi weren't fairing any better with their counterparts.   
  
It all seemed hopeless!  
  
Abruptly there was a bright light and then the veiled Middle Eastern stranger was standing there.  
  
"You!" Yami Bakura growled.  
  
"Can you help us, sir?" Serenity pleaded, recognizing him from the Boston mystery and remembering that he was on their side.  
  
He shook his head. "No. Only God and your love for your siblings can save them." Slowly he moved forward, looking at the injured with a grim expression in his blue eyes. "This was an evil plot by your enemies to put your love to the test. They do not understand what it is to care for others, nor do they believe love could give someone the will to keep living."  
  
"How do we help our brothers?!" Mokuba demanded, hugging Seto's limp form.  
  
"Just continue loving them," was the reply. "They are not dead, just deeply unconscious. They will eventually sense you and recover, contrary to what your enemies think."  
  
Ishizu looked down, more tears gathering in her eyes as she touched Rishid's cheek and Marik's shoulder. "And you are saying that our enemies hurt them, as opposed to the actual crash doing this?!" She knew the stranger's secret—that he was really Shadi—but she wasn't at liberty to reveal that. Yugi knew this as well, and he was delighted at the news that their loved ones would be alright.  
  
"Yes," Shadi said quietly before vanishing.  
  
It took quite some time, but the man's words did come true and everyone was able to get their loved ones awakened.  
  
"Seto!" Mokuba cried in delight when his brother stirred and then instantly he flew into the surprised teen's arms. "Seto, you're okay!!"  
  
"Joey!" Serenity exclaimed happily, seeing him beginning to revive as well.  
  
Ishizu embraced her precious brothers joyously, breathing prayers of thanksgiving. Marik and Rishid smiled at her, returning the hugs.  
  
"Well, it's about time you woke up," Yami Bakura grunted at Bakura. Oreo meowed her bliss and rubbed against the boy, who chuckled.  
  
Yugi had a reunion with his Yami as well, and Grace with Bruce, while Téa, Tristan, Duke—and even Bernard—looked on in relief, and Duke in confusion as well.  
  
"So I'm guessing this is part of a new mystery," the emerald-eyed boy remarked.  
  
"You've guessed right," Yami Yugi grunted.  
  
****  
  
After the reunions were over, everyone stumbled into Duke's shop to discuss the case.  
  
"What we're assuming is that a record pirating business was operating at KETY," Seto began, his eyes narrowed. "They abducted Marik, apparently because they wanted the Rod."  
  
"And they seem to be teamed up with Franceska or somethin'," Joey put in.  
  
Seto grunted, not wanting to address that angle.  
  
"But WHO is doing this??!!" Bruce yelled indignantly. "THAT'S what I want to know!! WHO!!!!"  
  
"Let's list our suspects," Yugi said firmly, spreading out a piece of paper. Then suddenly he didn't know how to begin, since two of theirs suspects—Phil Court and Bernard—were right there.  
  
Duke glanced at the blank list. "Good going," he said wryly.  
  
"Hey, we have suspects!" Tristan said defensively.  
  
Duke blinked at him. "Oh?" he said calmly.  
  
"Put it this way," Tristan replied, crossing his arms. "Everyone we've met on this case is a suspect!"  
  
"Even me?" Grace exclaimed.  
  
"What motive would you have?" Yami Yugi asked, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.  
  
"None, of course," Grace said, flustered.  
  
Seto grunted to himself, hoping that they wouldn't find themselves dealing with another sibling against sibling case, such as they'd had with the last KETY mystery.  
  
"We're not talking about Lila Palmer here!" Bruce said indignantly. "Grace isn't a crook!"  
  
"Alright, alright, calm down!" Joey snapped. "Man, that's all we need—to start arguing!"  
  
"When did all this start?" Duke asked with interest.  
  
"Well, we got involved last night," Téa told him, wondering how everything could have really happened in just over twenty-four hours, "but I think it's probably been going on longer than that."  
  
"I don't doubt it!!" Bruce growled.  
  
Suddenly remembering something that JP had told them, Marik spoke up now. "Were you walking around carrying a pack of matches some time ago and muttering something about 'I'll show them'?" he asked of Bruce, who started in surprise.  
  
"Who told you that?!" he growled.  
  
"JP," Yugi said, remembering this as well.  
  
"To be honest," Téa said slowly, "we were called in yesterday because . . ."  
  
"He suspected me, right?" Bruce grumped.  
  
Yugi went entirely pink. "Well . . . yes, he did," he admitted.  
  
"Doesn't surprise me," Bruce muttered.  
  
"Well, in light of the fire that took place in the studio, I think we're justified in asking just what you meant by saying 'I'll show them' and carrying matches," Yami Yugi said now. He was anxious for this whole mystery business to end.  
  
Bruce looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "I wasn't going to burn anything!" he insisted.  
  
Duke looked completely baffled. "Would someone like to explain exactly *what's* going on?!" he cried.  
  
"No, we would not!" Bruce snapped.  
  
A cold chill swept through the room and everyone froze.  
  
"Joey, what is it?!" Serenity screamed, clinging to her brother tightly and not wanting something else to happen to him.  
  
"I'm not sure," Joey replied slowly, keeping his arms firmly around Serenity. "But I sure as heck don't like it!"  
  
Ishizu looked down. "I know what it is," she said quietly. "The evil spirits that have been plaguing us since this mystery began. And . . . this Franceska as well."  
  
Bakura went pale. "No . . . no, not her . . . please . . ."  
  
A cold hand brushed against his cheek and he screamed.  
  
"Now, really, Bakura," a feminine voice purred, "is that any way to greet me?"  
  
"Leave the boy alone," Yami Bakura growled, squinting in the sudden fog to see Franceska's voluptuous figure and keep Bakura away from her.  
  
"Didn't you get sent to the Shadow Realm?!" Tristan cried.  
  
"Maybe," Franceska smiled, slinking through the fog.  
  
"Hey, lady," Duke yelled, "I don't appreciate this going on in my shop!"  
  
"Oh, poor Dukie," Franceska sneered. "Well, I'm sorry, but you'll just have to deal with it." She snapped her fingers and vampyres, werewolves, zombies, and even some nondescript creatures began rising from the woodwork and surrounding the hapless group. "I do hope you all have fun!" She started to laugh maniacally.  
  
"Oh yeah," Tristan remarked, "we'll have a regular party!" He backed up in annoyance as a werewolf started to move closer.  
  
Bakura cried out in alarm as several vampyres grabbed him and tried to drag him away. Instantly Yami Bakura was there, ready to blast them all away.  
  
"Harm the boy and you shall pay," he hissed.  
  
Téa screamed as she was bowled over by one of the nondescript creatures. Mokuba was attacked next, much to Seto's horror and Marik's outrage. Seto immediately pounced on the beast, trying to drag it away from his precious brother, while Yugi and Yami Yugi tried to save Téa.  
  
Rishid was assaulted by a female vampyre who seemed to find him quite handsome. He struggled against her, trying not to harm her until she moved too close and attempted to bite his neck. Instantly he shoved her backwards into another one and watched them both crash on the floor.  
  
Marik was struggling to protect Ishizu from an onslaught of the villainous creatures and wound up being attacked by at least half a dozen of them. Rishid and Ishizu both hastened to their brother's aid.  
  
"I've had enough of this!" Duke yelled angrily, running forward to Franceska. "Just cut this out!!" It angered him to no end that the vampyre was using his shop for such atrocities!  
  
Franceska smiled dangerously at him. "How about I cut you out of the picture?" she replied, using her powers to throw him back against a shelf. Duke collapsed to the floor in a daze, the shelf crashing on top of him! 


	19. Final Battle

Everyone stared at horror at the evil vampyress's actions.  
  
"Duke!!!" Serenity screamed.  
  
Duke, completely trapped under the metal shelf, didn't move or reply. Serenity went pale, fearing the worst.  
  
Franceska smirked. "Well, it seems that Dice-Boy has been taken care of—permanently! Now to be rid of the rest of you!!"  
  
"You creep!" Joey yelled. "Duke never even did anything to you!!"  
  
"He was being a pain," Franceska retorted, examining her long fingernails. "But the rest of you won't have such quick, easy deaths. I want to see you all suffer!"  
  
"Duke isn't dead!!!" Serenity burst out, trying to run over and lift the metal shelf. Before she could, a horrible werewolf was pinning her to the floor.  
  
"SERENITY!!!!!!" Joey and Tristan both cried in alarm, running to help her.  
  
Yami Yugi glared at Franceska. "Why are werewolves working with you?!" he demanded. "They are supposed to be vampyres' mortal enemies!"  
  
"Not these select few," Franceska smiled. "They have . . . seen the light, shall we say. They know just how much it will profit them to work with us. Of course a bit of brainwashing didn't hurt."  
  
Meanwhile, Rishid had grabbed one of the vampyres attacking Marik and raised it up over his head. "Leave my family alone!" he growled, throwing it back against an oncoming werewolf.  
  
"Such strength," Franceska complimented, "and even after everything my young nephew did to weaken you!"  
  
"Rishid is still weakened," Ishizu replied quietly, "but he still has his fighting spirit. It comes from a desire to protect those he loves and right the wrongs being committed."  
  
"Oh, well, isn't that touching," Franceska smirked.  
  
No one had a chance to talk further, as they were suddenly all overpowered by the horrific creatures.  
  
"Once you're all dead," Franceska laughed, "I will take the Items from those of you who have them! This whole plot has gone just as I predicted!"  
  
Yami Bakura smirked. "Was this in your plans?" he asked, unleashing the Morphing Jar and scooping up a good portion of the werewolves and vampyres.  
  
"And what about this!"  
  
The familiar voice came from behind them. Madame Fiona, a vampyre working against Franceska, appeared silhouetted in the doorway of Duke's shop. With her were all those who were her allies.  
  
Franceska's features twisted in anger. "You again, cousin!"  
  
"Yes!" Fiona cried.  
  
"Man, I never thought I'd be so happy to see a vampyre," Joey smiled in relief, shoving the one back that was trying to attack him and Serenity.  
  
With the new reinforcements, Yugi and the others were finally able to get the upper hand against Franceska's army. Seto smashed his briefcase across one while Marik used the Millennium Rod as a stake. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and since poor Marik had been about to be either killed or turned into a vampyre himself, he felt the measures were desperate enough. It was an act of self-defense on the boy's part, and not something that would be considered a crime.  
  
Even Mokuba was able to get into the act. Furiously he dropped down on a vampyre from behind, kicking it in the head. "That's for hurting my brother!" he yelled, referring to several slashes Seto had received on his left shoulder.  
  
When there was finally a bit of a lull in the action, Serenity and Tristan ran over to lift the metal shelf from off Duke's poor body. The raven-haired boy didn't even make a sound.  
  
"Duke!!" Serenity cried out, going pale. This was just like Boston all over again! she thought to herself. And what was more, she knew that every single one of the mysteries must be just like these.  
  
She couldn't help remembering how Joey had led her to believe that nothing bad had ever really happened to him. Somehow she had the feeling that it wasn't true.  
  
Tristan was checking Duke for broken bones. Upon not finding any, he shook the other teenager on the shoulder. "Duke! Hey, buddy! Come on, answer me!!" he pleaded, to no avail.  
  
"Tristan . . . is he . . ." Serenity looked up at him with frantic hazel eyes.  
  
The brown-haired boy didn't know what to say. The truth was, he wasn't sure how Duke was doing. And if he was . . . dead, how on earth would Tristan ever manage to tell Serenity?! He knew this case had been hard for her already.  
  
Bruce was purple with rage. "But someone in the station must have started all this!" he declared, clenching his fists. "The whole record pirating . . . letting the vicious dog loose . . . and starting the alliance with these . . . these . . . fictitious creatures that, for some reason, have suddenly come to life!!"  
  
Franceska got a hearty laugh out of that. "Oh, I can assure you that we've always existed," she purred.  
  
"There *was* someone working on the inside," Yami Yugi spoke up, looking around to see if the others were alright.  
  
"And it was me!"  
  
Slowly a vaguely familiar woman stepped out from the shadows, twirling a catnip mouse around in her hand.  
  
Oreo perked up and let out a hiss.  
  
"Delya?!" Bakura gasped.  
  
Marik, who was kneeling on the floor and clutching a wound in his arm, looked up at the new arrival and tried to figure out if he'd seen her around before. "Who are you?" he asked finally.  
  
Delya smiled. "Bakura and his 'brother' met me," she said. "And I know who you really are," she added to Yami Bakura. "One of the ones I've been looking for!"  
  
"Okay, so you want the Millennium Items," Téa spoke up from where she was insisting on treating Seto's wounds, "but then why did you start the record pirating?!"  
  
"Good way to make some easy money," Delya told her. "Besides, I knew that eventually you kids would get around to investigating things. Then I could start putting the real plan into action!  
  
"Since Franceska—an old college roommate of mine—has such a grudge against all of you, she instantly agreed that we should team up when she found out that I was after the Millennium Items. And she has so many friends in low places that she used to attack all of you!" Delya looked pleased with herself.  
  
"What about stabbing me?!" Bruce said indignantly. "Who did that?!"  
  
"Another friend," Franceska said, tossing her hair. "Delya thought that should be done because she figured sooner or later you'd manage to uncover the truth. And we couldn't have that now, could we?"  
  
"We tried to have you hypnotized, but it didn't work," Delya said in irritation.  
  
"And I suppose you gassed all of us as a warning." Tristan narrowed his eyes, still not having any luck reviving Duke.  
  
"Of course. It's unfortunate that we weren't able to eliminate Bakura before, but oh well. All of you will perish now!" Franceska didn't seem intimidated in the least by the rival vampyre army. This was because she had a secret weapon to use—the rest of her expansive allies.  
  
Ishizu stood to face her. "No," she said solemnly. "We will not."  
  
The battle resumed then, in full force. Every now and then someone would fall on either side, screaming in agony as it happened. The vampyres would dissolve into dust and fade away, but the others' bodies would remain—laying on the floor and making it difficult to fight.  
  
Tristan grabbed Serenity and pulled her and Duke back behind the counter. "Man, I wonder what he'll do with the mess that'll be here when he wakes up," Tristan muttered, even though he admittedly didn't know if Duke was even alive. He struggled again to find out, without much luck.  
  
"He's dead, isn't he," Serenity said quietly.  
  
"Of course not!" Tristan exclaimed with false confidence. "Do you really think Duke would die just from a shelf falling on him?"  
  
"But it was so heavy," Serenity sobbed. She could hardly stand it as screams echoed all around them. At any time, another of her own dear friends—or even Joey—could meet their end!  
  
At that moment Duke gave a weak moan and reached up to rub the back of his head.  
  
"Duke!!" Serenity cried, her expression brightening. "You're okay!!!" Tristan tried not to feel too jealous as the girl leaned down and hugged the injured boy.  
  
Duke looked confused for a brief moment and then smirked shakily as he returned the hug. "Of course," he said smoothly, struggling to sit up straight. "Now . . . what's going on in my shop??!"  
  
Before anyone could reply, a werewolf flew over the desk and lay still on the floor. It soon became obvious that it was dead.  
  
"Does that answer your question?" Tristan asked.  
  
Duke stared at the creature in disbelief and then narrowed his eyes. "Alright, then," he said dangerously. "No one turns my shop into a fighting arena!" He pulled himself up and pressed a switch, activating the overhead lights.  
  
Any remaining evil vampyres shrieked at the light and tried to get away from it, but not in time. Then only Franceska was left, having fallen off the balcony. She lay on the hard floor below, breathing heavily, her neck apparently broken.  
  
Bakura stood over her, no longer looking terrified, but instead only saddened. "Your hatred brought you to this," he said quietly, knowing there was nothing he could do for her.  
  
"I will kill you," she hissed in reply as she faded away into nothing.  
  
Now Bakura let out a shaky breath of his own, feeling weak in his knees. He could hardly stand to face that evil woman again after what she had done to him before. Tears started to slip from his eyes.  
  
A hand was laid on his shoulder and he looked up to find that it belonged to his Yami. The thief gazed at him gruffly but then squeezed his shoulder just slightly. "She's gone, fool," he said quietly. "She can't bother you anymore."  
  
Bakura could only nod numbly.  
  
Ishizu and Mokuba, meanwhile, had pinned Delya to the floor and were tying her up. "Tell me about what happened to my brother," Ishizu demanded. "And who sabotaged the engine of that aircraft?"  
  
"You know why we took him," Delya shrugged. "As for who did the sabotaging, I wouldn't know. We were puzzled with that ourselves." She looked at Seto. "Oh yeah, it was that doctor guy who stole the hologram machine from you. All that stuff in the canyons was set up by him to try to scare all of you away. He was only in on the record pirating, and not the deeper stuff."  
  
Seto grunted. He'd already determined that.  
  
Bruce glared daggers at Delya. "I have just one thing to say to you!" he fumed. "YOU'RE FIRED!!!" he screamed, nearly causing the building to shake with the force of his yell.  
  
A wail of agony interrupted any further conversations. Immediately everyone ran to find out what had happened—only to find Marik kneeling down beside Rishid's lifeless body and looking overwhelmed.  
  
"He fell off the balcony with Franceska," Marik whispered. "They went in different directions. . . . And Rishid was already so weak from everything else. . . ." Tenderly he began cleaning a gash on his older brother's right temple.  
  
"But . . . he's okay, right?" Téa exclaimed.  
  
Marik didn't answer.  
  
"There were bound to be many casualties in a battle such as this," Yami Yugi said quietly as he came over. "We can't expect to come out of things safely every time."  
  
Dead silence came over everyone as they thought of Shadi and how he had died—so they thought—back at the Black Diamond Ranch.  
  
"Why not?!" Serenity wailed suddenly. "Why can't we?!" Tears started to fall from her eyes as she watched Marik's quiet resignation of Rishid's death and Ishizu's attempts to comfort him. "That's the way it should be!!!"  
  
Joey held her close. "I know, sis," he said softly. "I know."  
  
Slowly Marik pulled Rishid into his arms as best he could, not bothering to pretend that he wasn't crying. "He was so courageous," he whispered. "Dear Rishid. . . ." His tears splashed against his brother's closed eyes.  
  
Abruptly Rishid blinked, moving just slightly in Marik's embrace. He looked up at the teen and at Ishizu as well, a soft kindness in his eyes.  
  
"Well," Bakura smiled as the Ishtar siblings embraced joyously, "it seems that we all will come out of this one safely."  
  
Oreo leaped into his arms and purred happily.  
  
"Now," Duke called, "what do I do with all of these werewolves and weird creatures?!"  
  
Yami Bakura grunted and used a Morphing Jar to send the beasts to the Shadow Realm. "They were in my way, anyway." 


	20. Epilogue

Notes: Whoo, can you believe it?! Mystery 11, all wrapped up!! ^__^ It's been fun writing this XD The scene I had the most fun with was probably the one where Joey thought Marik was a werewolf ^^;; LOL. Well, thanx a million for your interest and support, y'all, and I do hope you'll stick around for my new Holiday special!! ^____^  
  
Epilogue  
  
JP listened to the tale of everything that had happened since he'd last seen Yugi and the others the previous night, an expression of shock and disbelief on his face.  
  
"That's some adventure you guys have had!" he exclaimed. "I'm sorry I dragged all of you into it, but I'm glad you solved things!"  
  
"We were glad to help out," Yugi smiled. He chuckled as he looked up and saw Bruce following Bakura around the studio, begging for him to do another show.  
  
"Come on, Bakura!" the man wailed. "You're my star deejay!"  
  
"I'm sorry!" Bakura replied. "I really don't feel like it!!"  
  
"You never do!" Bruce retorted.  
  
Bakura had to admit that was true.  
  
"Actually, Bruce, I think you're gonna get your radio show," Tristan smirked. "Yami Bakura has taken over the studio here since JP hasn't been on the air."  
  
Bruce looked up hopefully. "Really?!"  
  
Yami Bakura was leaning back in the chair, his feet on the table and a headset over his ears. "Yes, it's another mysterious October night," he sneered. "Are things going bump in the night at your abode yet? They will be before this broadcast is over!"  
  
"He's a natural!" Bruce said proudly while Bakura turned several shades of pink.  
  
Oreo, curled up on Yami Bakura's chest, started to purr.  
  
The door opened and Bernard and Elsa popped in. "Any new mysteries?!" Elsa asked in a perky tone.  
  
"None today, thank Heaven," Marik grunted, watching them come in. He was a bit surprised to see that they'd patched things up so quickly. Those two were known to argue constantly.  
  
"Well, if any do crop up, we at least know that Bruce isn't guilty," Bernard declared.  
  
"That's certainly a change of attitude," Tristan remarked.  
  
"Yeah, well, he's not so bad," Bernard shrugged. "The one we've really gotta watch out for now is that new deejay, Noa or whatever his name is."  
  
Now Seto went several shades of pale. "NOA???!!!!" he practically thundered.  
  
Bernard smiled angelically. "Just kidding," he said. "The new guy's name is Nathaniel."  
  
Seto relaxed, his eyes narrowed considerably. "That wasn't funny," he grumbled.  
  
Joey was talking with Serenity in the corner, expressing his regret that she had once again had to see so many terrible things.  
  
"It's alright, Joey," Serenity smiled. "Really, it is." She tried to laugh. "I guess I should know by now that something dangerous will always be happening around you and the others. . . ." Her attempt at a laugh wound up being a sob caught in her throat. "I just can't stand it when someone gets hurt!!"  
  
Joey pulled her close. "I can't stand it either," he said quietly. "And . . . yeah . . . that's why we keep solvin' the mysteries. You were right, Serenity. We do it to help others."  
  
"And I think that's so wonderful," Serenity told him.  
  
"Today, as an in-studio guest," Yami Bakura was continuing, "we have a current recording artist who is touring the station." Boredly he dangled a sardine in front of Oreo and she leaped for it happily.  
  
The door opened and the said singer came running in, smiling broadly as she took in everyone around her. "I can't believe it!!" she exclaimed, her gaze lighting on Mokuba.  
  
"Uh . . ." The boy blinked in confusion.  
  
"You're Mokuba Kaiba!!" the singer gushed. "I can't believe I'm standing in the same room with you!!!"  
  
Seto didn't look happy at the thought of Mokuba having acquired a fangirl. He glared daggers at the newcomer, warning her to stay back from his little brother.  
  
"All the criminals have been captured, right, Yugi?" Téa was asking him.  
  
Yugi nodded. "All the human ones have been locked up in jail. They won't be getting out for a good long while!"  
  
Phil was standing nearby, his manners having improved quite a bit by now. He had apologized to everyone for treating them the way he had before and was quietly getting things ready for Mandy's upcoming show.  
  
"It's good to know some people really do change," Yugi said now in reference to Phil.  
  
"You can say that again," Téa smiled, but her attention was on first Seto and then Marik. She was remembering something from their Boston mystery. Seto and Marik had been captured by some evil doers who wanted to sacrifice them in order to release a treacherous beast. They had specifically wanted those two because they were two who had changed their bad ways and repented. Téa was very happy that Seto and Marik were among those in their circle of friends now.  
  
"So now we have mystery eleven wrapped up!" Joey grinned. "I wonder if there'll be any more."  
  
Rishid looked over at him from where he was resting on the couch. "In all honesty, Joseph, with our luck I am certain another one will find us."  
  
Ishizu chuckled softly. "If one does, I pray it will not be for a while. We all need a chance to recover from this one."  
  
Marik nodded emphatically. "I would be perfectly happy to take an extended hiatus from mystery solving," he said. "There were far too many close calls on this one."  
  
"Yes, not to mention how long it's going to take for me to get my shop back in order," Duke grumbled, crossing his arms.  
  
"Hey, be glad that you're even here to be worryin' about gettin' it in order," Joey retorted. "You took a pretty bad hit with that metal shelf!"  
  
Duke just smirked. "But I am still here," he said, obviously feeling a bit cocky after coming through that experience with only a few bruises.  
  
Now all eyes turned to Bruce. "So what really is behind the whole thing of carrying matches and muttering 'I'll show them'?" Tristan wanted to know.  
  
"I told you, I wasn't going to burn anything!" Bruce said in annoyance.  
  
"Oh, let's just go ahead and tell them," Phil sighed before turning to the others. "He *was* going to burn something, but nothing more than a paper or two. The truth is, someone was threatening him about my past. Finally out of frustration he went to burn any records he had of my . . . illegal activities. But that was when the real fire started elsewhere in the station and he forgot all about it."  
  
Bakura's eyes were wide. "Who was threatening him?!" he asked.  
  
"Delya," Bruce growled. "She confessed to that. And the fire she started was to distract anyone from the fact that some music records were being loaded onto the plane in the field at that moment."  
  
"Well, I guess that officially wraps the mystery up," Yugi smiled with relief.  
  
Abruptly all the lights went out.  
  
"Not quite," an eerie voice said from out of the darkness. A flashlight clicked on, revealing only nasty-looking brown eyes.  
  
"YAAAAAA!!!" Joey yelped, leaping out of his chair. He stepped on something and a loud yowl echoed around, only startling him more.  
  
The lights came on again and Yami Bakura sneered at them all. "Spooked rather easily, aren't you," he remarked.  
  
"Yami!!" Bakura scolded.  
  
"Hey, I knew it was you all along," Joey objected.  
  
Oreo hissed at him, not liking having her tail stepped on. Immediately she leaped back into Yami Bakura's arms for comfort.  
  
Serenity had to giggle at Joey's vexed expression.  
  
Everyone else laughed as well, relieved that they could actually relax and laugh over something again. 


End file.
